And All The Nights After (Teacher Levi x Student Eren Drama)
by ButterfliesInYourTummy
Summary: Modern AU; INTENSE DRAMA. College Student, Eren gets rescued from being roadkill by a mysterious man who he falls for right away. But the man walked out of his life as fast as he swooped in & rescued him. Little did Eren know; he'd pop back up again. And he'd bring drama and heartbreak in his wake. But it's not all him. Eren is just as guilty. (see A/N for full summary warnings)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: ****Eren almost lost his life that day, deciding that a text was much more important than actually looking both ways before crossing the street. Honestly, he would have made a much bigger deal**  
**out of it than he did, but he was too distracted, too infatuated with the man who happened to save his life. He walked right out of Eren's life as fast as he swooped in and rescued him.**  
**And Eren didn't expect to see him again; he went on with his life, with helping his financially struggling mother, with helping with the foster kids, with going to college to get his education, with turning 21 because it was his birthday, and with allowing himself to get dragged off to a gay bar by his best friend. And then he landed himself in a dirty situation. Literally.**  
**He got himself a name and a reputation, gave everyone a reason to look at him and smile. And Carla was a bit suspicious about how her son was suddenly getting so much money. Eren made himself a running business in that gay bar, but in that same gay bar that happened to be owned by someone who didn't like what he was seeing. And Eren didn't like that he was seeing it either.**

**WARNINGS: This story contains sexual content/tension between males and I suppose a female/male too, homosexuality, rape/non-con, angst, cheating, hardships of relationships when a partner cheats, sex for money, slut-shaming, strip clubs, gay bars, drug &amp; alcohol abuse, profanity &amp; foster care kids. If none of this bothers you, then read on and enjoy! :)**

**Or not? .3.**

* * *

**Coconut Head: **My contact name isn't He-Man Shouta anymore, right?

**Eren**: Nah! Thats so two weeks ago!

**Coconut Head: **Blond Sidekick?

**Eren**: Three weeks ago.

**Coconut Head: **Eren seriously.

**Eren**: I promise its just under Armin ;)

**Coconut Head: **I don't trust you OR that winky face…. -3-

In the cold air of a december morning and despite his super dry lips, Eren managed a smile from behind his scarf as he looked down at the phone in his hand. Nothing made his daily stroll to Shingashina University better than an Armin who actually managed to get his homework and studying done the night before so he wouldn't have to be rushing in the morning to finish it before class; it meant the two could text.

And nothing amused Eren more than his little blond, blue-eyed and round faced friend probing him on his new contact name; something that Eren started doing after being inspired by his idiot-friend, Jean's, comment about Armin looking like that one kid from the show Ned's Declassified.

However, today the brunet was fresh out of ideas this time around and resorted back to "Coconut Head", not that he was that disappointed with it (he'll admit that's his favorite one). And he was happy to see that Armin had resumed to being his normal self; happy and not seemingly stressed from working too much.

Juggling school and his recently newfound job at the same time not only sapped what little energy the guy had left, but it also pried him out of Eren's life for a bit. The only time he'd see Armin would be at school, then he'd work afterwards and come back late to the apartment they shared, literally collapsing on his bed with a loud groan before passing right the fuck out. It amazed Eren that his job killed him that much; whatever it was he was doing must have been so much more than his having to hold a tray with a bunch of shit on it with one hand while walking around and dealing with shit-mannered customers and Auruo's terrible jokes because even Eren didn't pass out like that when he returned home.

It made him wonder, but every time he tried to milk the information out of Armin; he'd always come up with some lame excuse with an, "I'll tell you later," added at the end which he never does.

Frankly, Eren was starting to think that maybe Armin was a prostitute and that his innocent-boy persona was nothing more than a fetish he practices or something to cover up his dirty little secret. But no matter how many times he considered it, he couldn't believe it because Armin was Armin and the male was as intelligent as they come.

Maybe he just needed to let it go and let his friend do his thing. It helped pay for the groceries, rent and bills, so why not?

Eren let his scarf slip down and exhaled, slightly amused by his small puff of "dragon breath" as he and Connie called it. The two always thought the best part of cold temperatures was seeing their breath in the air; and being so close to turning 21, Eren couldn't help but feel somewhat childish. But Connie was the definition of childish; Eren just liked going along with the guy.

Buttoning up his navy blue jacket to the top, the brown-haired male looked down at his phone once more as he started typing his reply to Armin with a cheeky grin plastered on his face.

And he must have not heard the car coming because time seemed to slow down momentarily. One minute he was glancing down at the glowing screen of his cell, the next it wasn't in his hand and there was a loud honk followed by multiple gasps, and someone had shouted, "Watch it!" And Eren lost control of his own body; and he felt himself get shoved, felt himself slip on the icy ground beneath his shoes.

Well almost slip.

Someone had caught him and had they their arms wrapped around him. And then he forgot about everything around him, forgot about his phone, forgot about Armin's secretive job, forgot about Armin. And all he could think of were the pools of steely dark, grey eyes under black fringe of an undercut hairstyle. And under them were dark shadows; an accessory that added age and made the owner look tired and practically fed up with people's bullshit.

Maybe he was fed up with Eren's bullshit in particular; perhaps he was gripping the man's shoulders a little too tightly and he was sure he didn't appreciate the nails digging into his very nice black trench coat and probably into the smooth white skin underneath it either.

The younger male relaxed his grasp, green eyes wide from shock and mouth extremely dry. "I-I…." Eren tried to speak, tried to apologize for his iron grip, but he couldn't and he didn't know why. He tried to tell himself he was overwhelmed from nearly being roadkill and was majorly mind fucked (that's what it had to be). This guy really had came out of fucking nowhere, like an angel hidden in the crowd and saved Eren from suffering from a broken body part that he'd have to explain to his mother, his friends, to Armin, and even worse, to his adoptive sister, Mikasa.

And boy, that would have been hell served on a dinner plate. But what Eren tried not to admit was the odd attractiveness he was feeling; this man was a magnet and Eren felt himself being pulled in against his will. He didn't know why. But he most definitely didn't like it.

The man raised an eyebrow at the college student, stilling holding on to him much to his surprise. "Oi, kid. Are you going to stand up straight or do I need to drop your ass?"

Eren blinked, coming to a slow realization that this man was literally holding him up and that if he were to let go, he really would fall on his ass. He straightened himself up quickly and, for the first time, noticed the worry faces of the people who happened to be nearby when he almost got hit by…

When he almost got hit by a car!

Eren's face scrunched up. He didn't look where he was going and he almost got hit by a car. His mother had always told him to look both ways before crossing the street...and...and he didn't! He didn't listen and she would be very disappointed in him. Heck, he was disappointed in himself. This was kid knowledge and he was already an adult! But worse, he could have died or gotten hurt or….someone else could have!

"Your expression looks like a mixture of anger, self-pity and constipation."

There was a twitch in the corner of Eren's lip at the comment; his silent scolding came to a sudden stop. His brow may have even furrowed a bit as he retorted, "I-I almost got hit by a car and you say that-!"

Something was shoved into his chest and Eren glanced down to see his phone in the man's hand, looking unharmed from its sudden descent. He stared at it quietly.

"You're fine," the man offered, and despite his monotonous voice giving off no emotion, Eren still felt some comfort in his words at least in spirit. "Take it. People are staring and if you just stand there it's probably going to worry someone."

"Thank you…" Eren murmured, reaching out for his cell only to accidentally ghost his fingers against the stranger's. His skin was surprisingly warm for the wheather they were in and Eren could have sworn his dark eyes flickered towards him when they touched. But he pulled back his hand rather quickly.

"Mm. Look both ways before you cross the road, you shitty brat," his savior breathed before brushing past the college student. And Eren turned and watched in silence.

And then his slowass caught on.

"I am not a shitty brat!"

At that, the man looked over his shoulder and there was a brief flicker of slyness in his eyes.

* * *

Eren stared at Mikasa's dark, glazed over eyes; her head was propped up on her arm and she looked about ready to pass out. He found it droll and comical whenever she was tired because usually she was the average pretty, strong-willed girl you'd find as the female lead character of a manga or anime; specifically an action-based one that may or may not include death and blood (and naked people). She had long, black hair in the past, but it was now shoulder-length, her skin was beautifully snow-white and her lips were tight. And currently, she was about to cross the fine line between holding herself up and face-planting the table.

And it was barely even half way through the day.

Eren peered over at Jean and Armin villainously; and while the blond gave him a disapproving look, Horseface seemed utterly confused. And that wasn't surprising, Jean was stupid.

The brunet turned back to Mikasa, waiting for the perfect moment before using his pencil to shove his small tray of applesauce right under her, and he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for a group of meddling kids and their dog, Reiner-Reiner-Roo.

His adoptive sister sat up with a jolt when Reiner, Sasha, Connie, Ymir and Christa all bombarded the table with childish yells of quotes from pokemon (probably the newest ones because Eren liked the original and he's never heard those lines before). Besides Christa who was smiling and Ymir who appeared blatantly disappointed, it was only Sasha, Connie and Reiner who were yelling these terrible lines.

"I pikachu when you're naked."

"YASSSSS!" Sasha cried.

"You guys are fucking nerds," Ymir said, pinching the bridge of her nose as she leaned against the small female blonde next to her. "Reiner, dude. Their stupidity has rubbed off on you."

Connie snorted. "Someone needs to catch them all," he nudged the brunet, Sasha, smiling triumphantly as she giggled. "Eh? Eh? Reiner?"

The blond male seemed unamused by that one. "Come on now," he groaned.

Eren was thankful that even that joke went unrecognized; it was clearly shit, but that was Connie for you. Idiot comedian of the year and the last airbender.

Mikasa was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes now as her, Eren, Armin and Jean migrated around to make room at their table, leaving three spots to be lonely and lacking a body.

"Where's Annie, Bertholdt and Marco?" Armin inquired, regarding the empty seats.

"Annie overslept. She'll be late…" Mikasa answered, yawning so hard that Eren couldn't believe she could open her mouth that wide.

Ymir had locks of Christa's hair in between her fingers. "Marco and Bert are in art. Same profesor I have and jesus," she rolled her eyes. "Talk about clean up. The guy doesn't let anyone leave until his room is spotless. And you know artists, they can be fucking messy."

The horse faced sketcher, Jean, glared daggers at the tall female. "What?"

"Y-Ymir!" Christa cried.

"I mean artistically unorganized. Calm yourself, War Horse."

This elicited a laugh from the entire table (except the tired Mikasa who just looked lost) and being the closest to Jean, only Eren was the one to get punched in the shoulder much to his dismay. Honestly, it was great to be back. Shingashina University had closed down for a while due to the snow and while the brunet was content with no school, he soon realized how much he missed his stupid friends and it wasn't long until he (surprisingly) missed it. It wasn't the same just seeing Armin all day and visiting his mother here and there; it lacked the comic-relief that was Reiner, Connie and everybody else.

And as soon as the snow started to melt, being replaced by icy roads and sidewalks; the announcement of the resuming of classes actually made Eren jump for joy. No, really. He jumped for joy in his boxers when Armin shared the news with him. He was that happy to return to his routine. But then he made sure to threaten the blond about never, ever telling anyone what he saw that day. His reputation as an angry, cheeky asshole depended on it.

By the time noon rolled around, their lunch break was over and they all went their separate ways; though Christa and Eren walked together because they were both headed to Music Theory II.

The girl held her books to her chest protectively and Eren was once again thinking about how short she was. She was really, really short yet she made him feel so tied up just by her presence when nobody else was with them. But she was cute despite the fact that Eren didn't roll that way and neither did she.

And then, there was also the whole her-father-was-his-boss thing.

At the restaurant Eren worked at, Reiss; her father was the owner and it was a family business. And simply because the brunet had opened his big mouth one day, complaining about how it was so hard to find a decent place to work; she offered for Eren to work there. And because she had that can't-say-no-to-that smile and pulled the whole "it'd be nice having another friend work there with me too" card, he just couldn't refuse. So he became a waiter and Christa and Ymir sure had fun teaching how to not trip, fall, spill everything everywhere, be polite to assholes, smile unnecessarily even if your day was shit and the like.

He had to admit those were some useful skills though.

"Ready for some music studying again?" Christa asked sweetly, looking up to Eren as the continued to walk. She had honestly caught him off guard and he turned to return the eye contact only to stare at her as he tried to form up his answer.

"Yeah, I guess," he responded, sounding a bit bored. "So far we've only been learning things I already know about music. It's weird that Music Theory I gave me more knowledge compared to this year in its second class."

Christa made a face. "Same thing with my psychology course! But first semester is coming to an end so maybe we'll learn more in the second semester. Maybe it'll be interesting too; wouldn't want to have to watch you suffer through class, bored out of your mind for another few months. Profesor Ral is probably just saving the best part for last."

"Maybe," Eren murmured, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

The blond hummed quietly to herself for a little bit before nearly startling the male beside her when she cried out, "Oh yeah! I knew I was forgetting something important. Are you okay?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"This morning," she whispered softly. "You almost got hit by a car, right?"

As surprised as Eren was to hear that Christa knew about that, he tried his hardest to seem composed. He felt his ears turn red though. "Yeah...um.. Armin told you, huh?" It wasn't really a question and he didn't need her to answer it either because he already knew, because Armin was the only person he had told about the incident this morning.

And about that mysterious man too.

The girl nodded quickly, seemingly observing his face with her killer sea-blue pupils.

"Ah…" Eren cooed, looking ahead. "Well no. I mean I'm perfectly fine. I _almost _got hit, but I didn't so there's no need to make a big deal out of it."

"Yeah, but that person driving needed to watch where they were going too! The must have barely just missed you…"

The brunet became alert, eyes snapping to attention as he glanced down at Christa. She was regarding him with a mildly upset and concerned expression, but that wasn't what got Eren. What got him was what she said. There was no, "I'm glad you got saved" or "did you know the guy" coming from her. It was as if she didn't even know the entire story. Perhaps Armin didn't get to that part. And if that was the case, he was grateful for it.

"Mmm…" Eren mumbled, playing along with her. He wanted to drop the subject. He didn't want to let his friends know that he had almost ended up in a body cast or possibly lost his life that morning; and he most definitely didn't want them to know about the man who had rescued him either. He didn't want reminders because the sad part of the entire situation was; he was taken aback by that man, he wanted to know more, to talk more, to at least have gotten a name to add to that face with those pissed off-looking facial features of his.

And he was probably never going to see him again.

* * *

Eren suffered through Music Theory II and the rest of his classes; too impatient to even wait for Armin and walk home together. He decided to send him a text instead:

**Eren: **Going on ahead. I want to go to the music store before visiting mom again

**Coconut Head: **Thanks for letting me know. I don't work until late so don't think you've escaped telling me about that man from this morning. I want all the details.

**Eren**: Yeah yeah yeah -3-

**Coconut Head: **Seriously be safe, okay? I'm not going to text you cause you apparently can't walk and text outside. Don't walk and text. Please babe. For your own good.

**Eren: **Fuck you and your shouta face

**Coconut Head: **Bye, love. 3

Eren shook his head, unable to hide to grin on his face. This and many other reasons is why he considered Armin to be his best friend. Slipping his phone into his pocket, he continued walking down the now less icy sidewalks on his way to the music store.

Despite the chilly coldness in the air; the sun was out and the day was looking much more beautiful than it had this morning. It almost made Eren wish he had brought his headphones along so he could listen to music as he strolled. But it was nice enough without music too.

Entering the little music shop on Trost street, Eren was greeted by the shopkeeper Hannes who waved him over as soon as his other foot crossed the threshold of the store. The brunet walked over to the counter that he stood behind and smiled at the man.

"Hey, Hannes."

"Hey, kiddo," the older male responded. He pointed behind him to the door marked, "employees only" and grinned. "Ed Sheeran came in. It's in the back. That what you came for?"

Eren's face lit up and pretty much leaned over the counter in excitement. "Really? I didn't expect it to come in so early and I thought if it didn't, I would just look for something else for Hitch. But if it's here, that's great! I'll take it," he said, pulling out his wallet. "How much was it?"

Hannes shrugged his shoulders. "Mmmm, actually don't worry about it. It's on me."

"No, I couldn't-!"

"Eren," the man said. "You know you're my best customer and it's really the least I can do. You're a good kid and your mother does so much for those kids. And it's just a CD." He winked before walking backwards to the employees only room. "It's on me so shut your mouth."

There was really no time to start another argument so Eren sighed heavily and waited as Hannes left him in the shop. He shoved his wallet back into his pocket and allowed the counter to support his weight.

Sure, Hannes did have a point, but he still wanted to pay himself (especially since he went as far as ordering an Ed Sheeran CD because there was none in stock). His mother did do a lot, especially for those kids. Without the help of his shithead of a father, Grisha, Carla was left to hold up the family bakery that honestly didn't do much financially and despite this, she still followed her dream of managing a foster home for kids. She was struggling and even after Eren moved out, he still continued to help her in whatever way he could. But she still stressed herself out and it upset him a lot. He almost wished he had enough money to help things be a little easier for her.

Hannes snapped him out of his thought, poking him with the bagged CD. "You seem tired."

"Oh, thank you…..and yeah, a little," Eren murmured as he took the CD, rubbing the back of his neck with a nervous laugh. "A lot has happened today, I suppose."

"Yeah? Want to talk about it?" Hannes offered, but as soon as the boy looked down at his watch, he added, "unless you want to wait until dinner? Carla asked me to come over tonight."

As much as he didn't want to speak of almost getting hit by a car and being saved by an older man who he found oddly attractive, to anybody especially his mother who would probably freak out and start scolding him about looking both ways, he smirked at Hannes.

"I guess I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah," Hannes confirmed, shooting Eren a grin in return. "Later."

He was turning to leave and was stopped at the door when the shopkeeper called out, "don't forget to tell Hitch to enjoy her CD!"

Eren smiled at that and responded with, "you can tell her that later."

"Right!"

* * *

Eren nearly dropped the guitar pick, tapping his foot to the beat, strumming his fingers against delicate strings, lost in the music and in the ten year-old Hitch's beautiful voice as she sang. "So kiss me like you wanna be loved. You wanna be loved. You wanna be loved~"

Carla was clapping with a four year old Mina in her lap, who was smiling in awe at her singing friend. Isabel and Rico were swaying their hands in the air, both holding a flickering pair of light up sketchers. Hannah seemed on the verge of tears from her spot by Carla's feet and the only boy, twelve year-old Marlo, sat away from the group against the wall, but it was easy to tell how much he adored Hitch's singing with the way he watched in pure admiration.

"This feels like falling in love. Falling in love. Falling in love…"

After the fade, there was chorus of clapping and Hitch took a bow from her place next to Eren as he put down his guitar and joined in the applause. "Thank you, thank you! I'll be here all week, everyone! But I don't do free autographs," She bowed again and her shaggy, chin-length brown hair seemed to bounce with her and her yellow sun dress.

Carla wrapped her arms around Mina only to lift the girl up and put her down on her feet.

"What?!" The eight year old girl exclaimed. "That's not fair!"

"I don't care," the catty Hitch said, sticking out her tongue. "My talent shouldn't be wasted!"

All the younger girls seemed to join in now, starting to argue over whether it was fair or not to for Hitch to charge them and as far as Eren listened, he found it hilarious that the nine year-old Rico thought they deserved a family discount at the very least. She was going places for sure in the future. Carla shared a glance with her son and it was obvious they were both enjoying the little dispute going on between the army of cuties.

"Marlo, why don't you decide?" Eren chimed playfully, looking at the boy from across the room. "You're the big boy of the family here."

All the girls stopped and turned to Marlo, glaring red lasers of death that made the boy feel a bit uneasy. Eren hoped he didn't go too far with that, but the boy wasn't given much time to make a decision anyway.

"No, you're the oldest, Eren!" Hitch shouted, making the brunet wince. "You're the biggest boy here and my future manager so you need to tell them they have to pay!"

The college student grinned and leaned forward silently, eliciting all of the girls to also lean in with curiosity. "Last person that I find in hide and go seek gets to decide; ONE, TWO, THREE, GO!" At this, the girls screamed with smiles on their faces and basically stumbled over each other to get out of the living room and find a place to hide. It never ceased to amuse Eren how serious they were when playing hide and go seek.

Carla was laughing at their desperation to escape from the room and after they left, she looked at Marlo softly. "Make sure they don't get into too much trouble or break anything, sweetheart? Preferably, Hitch and Rico." Only a few seconds passed before the boy stood up and sluggishly walked out of the room, leaving Carla and Eren alone.

She turned to her son with a genuine smile on her face. "I keep forgetting how good you are with them whenever you're gone too long," she murmured. "I'm glad they like you so much…"

Eren shrugged. "Yeah...but Marlo…"

"He's just being distant," Carla said, walking over to her son to brush the brown fringe from his eyes. "The older they get, the more they start to think negatively because they're a foster child. Their initial thought is that their parents didn't like them or didn't want them. And unfortunately, Marlo is going through that by himself because the other girls are too young to understand. And Hitch…."

Eren looked up at her, suddenly concerned. "What about Hitch?"

"She's getting close to that age….she'll be eleven soon and it would be wrong of me to keep such a thing from her for too long."

"Let me tell her."

"Eren…"

"You did it for Marlo. Let me for Hitch," he said, blinking his green-colored eyes at her; the eyes that he got from her. Hitch liked him enough; in fact, it wouldn't be too much of an overstatement to say that the girl loved Eren, he could tell she was absolutely infatuated with the brunet and at least that might help ease the pain of the honest truth. But that wasn't why he felt obligated to do this. He had other reasons; very clear, solid reasons. "Dad isn't here for us...for you….so let me take his place and support you."

Carla's breath caught in her throat and her bottom lip quivered as her eyes grew glossy. She ruffled her son's hair and leaned down to kiss the top of his head. "Thank you...so much.."

Eren smiled, and he stood up just so that he could embrace the lovely woman who brought him into this world and cared for him for nearly twenty-one years.


	2. Chapter 2

The first person that Eren found in hide and go seek was Mina; she ended up getting distracted by the fact that Carla was making cookies in the kitchen. It was meant to surprise them after their game, but since the little black-haired girl had came sprinting into the room at such a speed and out of the nowhere, the woman had no time to play it off. He had causally came strolling into the kitchen to find her sitting on the floor and watching the cookies bake in the oven in awe and as soon as she looked up at him, she exclaimed, "oh poopy!" Leaning against the island table nearby, Carla giggled.

Hitch had been still trying to find a hiding place and Eren peered into the gaming room to see her scanning around as if debating her choices. And as soon as she saw him, she pointed her little finger at him and shouted, "that's not fair, Eren! I didn't even get to hide!" So with a small smirk, he raised his hands defensively and backed out of the room, telling her she better find a new room altogether if she planned on winning. On the other hand, Hannah thought she was being slick; having found her spot in the hallway closet and maybe Eren wouldn't have found her if she hadn't been peeking out so obviously, opening the door as wide as she did.

The nearly inseparable Rico and Isabel were both sitting in the upstairs tub with the curtains closed; which they were highly upset because Marlo happened to be standing in the bathroom with them, telling them not to break anything when Eren passed by. Isabel even kicked him in the shins; and surprisingly, the usually mature twelve year old boy actually dropped his prideful ways so that he could angrily pursue the girl around the house in hopes of being able to give her a taste of her own medicine.

And it was hilarious seeing his red face and her laughing, smiling one as they zoomed by the college student; the chase still in full progress.

"Queen" Rico declared that Sir Eren, knight of the Kingdom of Fosterville, carry her around in the act of what she called a "piggyback ride" which she even did the air quotes as she said it and he had to wait in the hallway as she retreated to her room to fetch her tiara, comically dropping her glasses in the process. As he stood there, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and started ringing, blasting the Skrillex remix of Cinema and he quickly pulled it out and answered it without so much as even looking at who it was that was calling.

"Yo," Reiner greeted.

Eren grinned at the voice,feeling a little bit cheekier than he did before. "Ah, rein-deer. What's up? I hope you've been having fun up there in the North Pole."

"Fuck you, you cheeky bastard," came to response and the brunet couldn't help but laugh. "Anyway, I called to ask you where you would want to go next weekend. Armin and I were talking earlier and we weren't sure what you would want to do then." Eren was raising an eyebrow now, visibly confused as to what his friend was talking about; and it didn't help that Rico had returned to his side. She pulled at his free arm with her tiara on her head, pouting impatiently, her head tilted up at him with attention-wanting eyes. "Hell, we even asked Mikasa and she wasn't sure."

"...Nobody told me we were making plans this weekend...or that it was even my turn to choose," he murmured, his eyebrows furrowing as he tried to dig into his own memories. "Actually, it wouldn't be my turn to pick. I picked two weeks ago. Don't you remember?"

There was a long pause on the other end and Eren took this as he chance to get low for Rico so she could climb onto his back. He used his free hand to hold one of her legs and she clung to him rather tightly, not used to him lacking the second hand.

"What…?" Reiner breathed.

"Do I have to recall that I made you, Bertholdt, Mikasa, Armin and Jean do a play-date over here at the house? And the fact that Mina made you look like an ugly clown?"

There was a long, low and pained groan. "Don't remind me. That is exactly why if I were a girl, I'd go natural. Fuck that make-up applying bullshit. But no, we're letting you pick. Just like the way we do for everyone else's birthday." Birthday? "Just because you're a cheeky asshole that the entire group secretly hates, it doesn't mean we won't let you decide."

Birthday!

"That's right!" Eren cried, feeling a mental slap to the face and completely ignoring Reiner's sly remark. Rico was leaning her head on his shoulder now, swinging her feet. "I can't believe I forgot!"

"You forgot your own birthday?" Reiner inquired, adding an ashamed click of his tongue. "Are you for real? The big two-one and you forget? Come on, that's the drinking age! Hell, you won't even have to wear that big-ass black mark on your hand and the wristband for being a minor."

"Ooooh!" Rico cooned, eyes getting wider and the brunet could hear his college mate whimper a small "oops" on the other end. "I heard you, Reiner-Roo! You cursed and I'm telling mom on you! You'll get a hand-smack with her big spoon."

There was a quick shriek into Eren's ear. "Not the big spoon!" Reiner counterfeited playfully, eliciting the small girl to giggle.

"Don't listen to my conversation, Rico!" Eren reproached in a soft yet stern tone and the girl whined, but was nice enough to switch the shoulder that she rested her head on so that she wasn't close to the phone. And then it hit him.

Reiner was right; he was turning twenty-one, wasn't he? The big two-one. And if they were to go to a club, he wouldn't be marked as a minor. And he could drink. And he wouldn't be seen as a kid. He'd be seen as an adult.

The thought excited him to a certain degree and maybe he would pick to go to a club or a bar; maybe. His mother definitely wouldn't like the idea but nobody said she had to know. But even then, he still didn't like lying to her and he didn't like keeping things from her either, especially things that could be potentially dangerous.

It wasn't like he was going alone though; he'd have Armin, Reiner, Mikasa and everyone else there with him, that is, if they would go with him. The only ones who would still be tried as minors would be Christa, Ymir and Sasha. They didn't seem like the drinking type anyway and Sasha would be happy as long as there's food.

Eren squeezed the phone a little too much against his face. "Then I might have an idea of where I'd want to go, Reiner-Roo," he whispered in an exhilarated undertone.

"You have absolutely no right to call me that, ERen." He deliberately spoke his friend's name in a derpy, unsavory voice that made Eren want to gag.

"That was so gross."

"So was Reiner-Roo," the blond male retorted.

"Why does Rico get to say it then?"

The girl on his back did Eren's signature grin. "Cause I'm pretty and special~" She purred.

"Cause she's pretty and special," Reiner repeated in a eerie and dreamy timbre.

After Rico's squeal of victory, the brunet narrowed his green emerald-like eyes and he uttered, "So you're basically saying I'm not pretty or special?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying! Glad you could catch the fuck on."

Rico gasped.

"Fuck you! I'm hot!"

And she gasped again and Eren quickly shut his mouth, hearing the obnoxious laughter of Reiner booming from his phone's speakers as Rico flicked the college student in the head.

"I'M TELLING."

* * *

In the end, Hitch was the last person to be found by Eren in hide and go seek. He had promised Rico to force Bertholdt and Reiner to come over and play Mario Cart with her if she didn't tell mom that he had cursed in the house which the blond agreed to quickly (he knew good and well Carla would scold him too if she ever saw him). He spent the next ten minutes searching around the house for Hitch who only managed to hide from him this long because she was constantly moving hiding spots and eventually Rico caught her running behind Eren as she tried to change rooms.

And Hitch wasn't very happy to be betrayed by her "own blood."

They all ended up sitting in the kitchen, awaiting cookies and Eren stayed on the phone with Reiner for a little bit longer, helping him with his homework because he understood nothing from Music Theory I and Bert wasn't even taking that course.

"Pitch, form and…." Reiner trailed off quietly, obviously unsure of his answer and just as Eren was about to open his mouth, the blond was once again noisy and obnoxious, "Bert, back the fuck up! You're basically breathing down my neck! Not that I don't like that… ah, fuck. Shut up, Reiner."

"I'm curious about Music Theory," came the sound of Bertholdt's tiny voice.

"Eren."

The brunet snapped to attention when he heard Reiner say his name. "Yeah?"

"Pitch, form and…." he started.

Ignoring Hitch as she climbed into his lap and wrapped his free arm around herself, Eren scrunched up his face. "Right…here, just remember this; elements of music such as pitch, rhythm, harmony, and form, but also with descriptions, concepts, or beliefs related to music. Repeat that to yourself and you'll remember it."

Reiner snorted. "Please, I have killer memory. I was the one who brought up your birthday and everyone else lost their fucking minds like," he adopted a fake and stupid, high pitched voice, "O-M-G! It's almost Eren's birthday?! I haven't even gotten him a present! Ohmergerd!"

"Who sounds like that?" Bertholdt asked on the other end.

"That was mostly a Sasha impression with a pinch of Connie," Reiner said.

Eren was unconsciously squeezing Hitch and curled his toes, yawning. "Of course."

"And the sad part is, the parts you think Sasha said...she wasn't the one who said them." And as soon as Eren caught on to that, he broke into an ugly fit of laughter that made Carla raise an eyebrow at him and even startled Hitch when she tried to snuggle back against him.

"Alright, well this isn't due until next week," Reiner sighed; the sound of papers ruffling and textbooks being slammed closed echoing with his voice. "You can help me another time."

"What? Well what if I don't want to help you?"

"You would let me fail?"

Eren felt his eyes flicker suddenly and as much as he preferred texting or talking; he was glad this was a phone conversation rather than a face-to-face one. Cause he would playfully say no and then his ears would turn red; a major give away that he was lying. And another hint to that? His eyes flickering. But that was one most people, even Mikasa, didn't know about.

"Nah," Eren said. "I was kidding."

"Better be. I would have marched my ass right the fuck over there and shoved my foot up yours!"

And the brunet's lips tightened at the threatening remark. He sat there, swaying involuntarily, an arm wrapped around Hitch as he shook his head, grinning. Boy, was Reiner lucky that his mother was in the kitchen with him or else all hell would have ran loose and gone rampant on the streets, starting with this house, and starting with Eren, in particular.

He let Isabel use his phone to contact Armin because he was invited to join them for dinner and the girl just adored him and his intelligence. It made Eren smile, seeing her stare at him with eyes of admiration and awe as he read her books, watched shows with her, played with her; it seemed no matter what they did, he always had some interesting input on something and his humor wasn't half bad either (though Eren felt he should take some credit for this because he used to be a boring stick in the mud when they were younger). And Isabel had happily skipped back into the kitchen to announce the good news of Armin being able to come over which Eren was glad to hear, he didn't want to leave his friend at the apartment, bored and with nobody to talk to except maybe the TV and his textbooks.

Time passed by surprisingly fast; Eren was helping his mother cook and the kids cleaned around the house; they even cleaned their rooms because they got done too quickly and Carla wanted them to be kept busy and away from them. And Eren was pretty sure she was only doing that because she knew how easily distracted he got.

Armin arrived before Hannes did; he was still in the same clothing he went to college in; a long-sleeve white button up that was noticeably ironed and well kept, blue jeans, and his favorite pair of blue converse that Eren had bought him for his birthday. He looked nice and, not to toot his own horn, but he couldn't help but notice that Armin's fashion had gotten better since he started letting Eren go shopping with him.

He was like a blond, blue-eyed cute-boy version of himself and his attractiveness skyrocketed to the top of the chart whenever he wore clothes similar to Eren's kind of style. He was still, and always would be, his nerdy, little friend though, even if one day he does wake up ten times sexier than Eren (which he could see happening, as much as he hated to admit it).

Armin was charming on his own.

Isabel nearly knocked him over with how she greeted him with a hard tackle when Eren announced his friend's arrival, but the cooking was still being done and Armin had no problem waiting in the living room with Isabel and the rest of the kids. Hitch had happily grabbed his arm and pulled him along, telling him she wanted him to hear her sing which resulted in a pouting Isabel who hurried after them.

Still, Eren knew that it was very much like him to change into something nicer whenever he came over for dinner and he wondered why he didn't, but there wasn't much time to ask. He'd find out later if he didn't forget.

It was only Eren and his mother in the kitchen and he thought that perhaps this was a good time to bring up the certain incident from this morning before she ended up hearing it from someone else's mouth. Especially since somebody (deadpan on Armin) decided that Christa should know. He finished setting up the table before retreating to the little island table in the middle of the room and sitting down, intertwining his fingers as he leaned against the marble table.

He inhaled. "So…..mother…"

"So…..son…" Carla responded, eyes focused on the beef stew she was stirring over the stove.

"Carla…."

"Eren…."

"Mama Jaeger…"

His mother smiled just a little bit and she glanced in his direction just for a few seconds, studying him before turning her attention back to the stew. "Your bottom lip is quivering." Her son reached up to feel his lip before silently cursing. "So that means that you're either thinking really hard to the point of almost hurting yourself or there's something you want to tell me and it's making you nervous because of how I may react."

"I didn't even know that my lip quivering was another give-away of mine!" Eren cried, voice cracking in the process and leading him to curse, but not so silently this time. "Fuck…!"

The woman glared at him from over her shoulder, watching her child's face turn pale. "Watch your language, Eren Jaeger!" She said sternly. "Don't make me get out my big spoon!"

"Sorry…." He murmured, head lowered and eyes on his lap.

It took a while, even almost a minute, but she gradually relaxed and her facial features softened up. She had just as much of a temper as Eren did whenever he got pissed off; in fact, that's where he got it from, but hers was much more controlled and she cooled down very quickly and rather skillfully. "Now what were you going to tell me?"

Eren barely lifted his head back up. "Ah….it can wait. After dinner would be a better time-"

"No, tell me," she insisted gently.

"I don't think I should at this particular moment…"

"Eren."

"Mother."

She turned around. "Eren Jaeger!"

He had his hands up now, laughing nervously. "No, really! I'll tell you later, I swear!"

Teeth gritted and cheeks slightly rosy, she stormed over to him and grabbed him by the ear and Eren couldn't help the numerous amounts of "Ow, ow, ow!" that came from his mouth. He even gripped her wrist in hopes that she would stop and let go.

"You're going to tell me, Eren. Right. Now." She affirmed dourly, tugging at his ear hard enough to result in a wince; that was followed by him standing up and stepping closer just so that he could make it less painful for himself. "This hurts me just as much as it hurts you, you know."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," her son countered in a pained response.

With that, Carla released her manly grip of steel and backed up, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you're going to go through this much trouble over telling me something; it must be bad. Whatever it is, please tell me," she pleaded. "I promise I will not yell or get angry."

"Or hit me with the big spoon?"

"Or hit you with the big spoon," she confirmed, nodding her head. "Now tell me."

She watched as her son slowly sat back down in his seat and observed her before sighing heavily. His bottom lip was starting to quiver again and his mother reached out to gently grab his shoulders and look him in the eyes. Two very similar, green-colored orbs met and didn't break contact for a few long and painful seconds.

Carla seemed to be staring into his soul now. "On a scale of dropping an empty plastic cup to getting a girl pregnant and having her entire angry family hunt you down-"

"I almost got hit by a car because I was texting," Eren blurted out, everything sounding blurred and jumbled up; that anxious tone in his voice absolutely unmistakable.

And Carla stared; and she stared; and her eyes were widening one second, but then the next they were narrowing and her eyebrows were scrunching up indignantly just like her face. And her lips tightened into a thin, upset frown and her nails dug into her son's shoulders. She slowly nodded her head as if confirming that she heard him and she pulled back, brushing her loose strands back behind her ear and spinning on her heel, jaw clenched. Her slippers skid, being dragged against the floor as she walked back to the stove and picked up the stirring utensil with a death grip, going back to cooking silently.

And that was it.

Eren was glad for that promise; she had kept it and there was no yelling on her part. Getting mad might have been another thing though. But he had to conclude this; that what happened in this kitchen just a minute ago was the most painful experience he had ever endured in his life.

* * *

The dinner went smoothly. Even though Eren knew he had royally pissed off his mother by telling her about the incident this morning; Hannes was more than enough to get that off of her mind. Her jaw had unclenched and she was actually smiling and laughing whenever the shopkeeper cracked a joke (correction: cracked a stupid joke). Armin was a big hit too. All the girls were interested to know about his majoring in astronomy and astrophysics, especially Isabel. He told them about what he was learning; like the evolution of the universe, the stars, the galaxies, and they were so intrigued that Eren worried about whether they would finish their food before it got cold.

However, he noticed Marlo just sitting there and eating. It was as if he wasn't even listening at all and he wished he could help the boy loosen up some more.

"Hey, Marlo," Eren whispered to the black-haired kid sitting next to him.

He looked up from his nearly empty bowl without saying a word.

"Weren't you interested in astronomy? You know; the stars and the galaxies and stuff?"

The younger male eyed Eren for a few seconds and when the college student gestured to Armin and he lifelessly stared at the blond. It was as if he didn't hear Armin who was still talking about the solar system and it's stars; or maybe he was pretending like he didn't care. Without saying anything to Eren, Marlo stood up from his seat, grabbed his empty bowl and utensils and started walking to the kitchen.

Carla noticed and turned to look at the boy. "Marlo? Do you want seconds?"

"No," he said.

And when his mother glanced to her son; all he could do was shrug with a frown on his face. But Hannes knew about Marlo and the others were too busy wrapped up in all of Armin's theories and "hypotheses" to have noticed. So the three, as much as they didn't want to, ignored Marlo's behavior and continued with their dinner. When it was all said and done, Hannes left right away since he promised the manager he would return and help him close the store up before going home, but Armin stayed and Eren found himself washing the dishes in the kitchen with his blond friend as Carla tucked everyone in upstairs.

They cleaned up silently and the only thing that could be heard was the running water, the clanking of dishes, and the sound of Eren yawning somewhere mixed in.

"Sounds like I'm driving tonight," Armin hummed with a smile.

"I could drive," Eren replied, drying a bowl with a green dish towel and yawning again; his mouth opening wider this time. "I'm not that tired. Just a little."

The blond glanced at him sideways. "...I'll drive. Better to be safe than sorry."

"Are you saying I'm a bad driver?"

"I'm saying you're tired."

"Nah," the green-eyed boy murmured. "I'm not tired. I'm Eren."

At this, his friend smiled slightly and shook his head, scrubbing hard at one of the dishes in his hand and letting it run under the water. "If you act weird like this when you're tired, just imagine how you do when you're drunk... And I'm curious as to whether your levels of cheekiness and smart comments triple-"

Eren nearly dropped the little bowl he was drying and half-lunged at Armin, clamping a tanned hand over his mouth and raising his other to his lips in a gesture to be quiet. Or better yet; to shut the fuck up. His petite friend stood there, eyes wide and frozen, having stopped scrubbing.

"Do you want my mom to hear you?!" Eren yelled in a whisper.

Armin shook his head silently.

The brunet pulled his hand back, quickly hurrying over to see if his mom was coming downstairs before returning to his spot beside Armin. He dried the bowl he had, practically snatched the last one in his college friend's hand and turned off the water faucet, going back to his drying duty. And he waited for a couple of seconds. Then he leaned in close.

"Who told you?" He inquired suspiciously.

"Reiner."

"What did he tell you?".

"That you might consider going to a bar for your birthday," Armin responded.

"Might," Eren stressed.

The blond shrugged, scrubbing away at the messes left in the sink before washing the sponge again and squeezing out the excess water. "I think you should."

"You? You think I should? That's weird….. Why?"

The only reply that came from Armin was a little charming smile and a bedazzled glint from those blue orbs as he retreated from the kitchen. "Tell your mother I said good night. I'm going to start the car and warm it up. If you think it's cold in the morning; the evening is what kills you. Don't take too long," he called, heading for the door with Eren bounding after him.

"Wait you have the car?! You didn't drive it this morning. I thought you didn't go home?"

"I did," Armin said, standing in the doorway. "I know I usually change, but I just didn't get to because I made it home by the time Isabel called me."

Eren stood there and watched his friend close the door behind him, completely dumbfounded. So that's why. But then the question was; what had Armin been doing then? Especially because he had to work later on. Normally he would go home and get in as much rest or studying as possible. Eren had been home for over an hour before the dinner; so what had Armin being kept busy for that long?

"Eren!"

The brunet turned at the sound of his mother's voice and saw her standing at the bottom of the staircase. She hurried over to him and took him into a motherly embrace which he returned with a smile on his face.

"I'm glad you could come spend time with the kids and eat dinner with us today. Do it more often, alright? Possibly bring Mikasa and Annie? Or Reiner and Bertholdt? Hmm….or everyone," Carla said, lovingly patting her son's hair. "Invite Armin too, cause it's quite obvious how much everyone looks up his intelligence. And with that sparkle in Isabel's eyes…I wouldn't be surprised if she wants to marry him."

Eren grinned. "No kidding. And alright, I'll try." They broke away from their hug and Carla watched as her little college student turned to leave. "Oh, and Eren!"

The brunet had his hand on the doorknob and stopped to look at her. "Yes, ma?"

"I'm not mad at you over that incident you told me about," she muttered softly. "Sometimes even I look down at my phone when I shouldn't be. Just be careful, okay? I don't want to lose you."

His lips pulled up into a smile and he nodded, opening the door. "I will. Love you."

"I love you, too," Carla said, blowing her son a kiss (which he pretended to catch like a weirdo). And with that, he crossed over the threshold of his old home and closed the door behind him, walking into the cool air and hurrying to join Armin waiting in his car.

* * *

The drive home was very quiet; there was nothing wrong between Eren and Armin. They were perfectly fine actually, but Eren was completely worn out with his eyes half-open, leaning against the window in the passenger seat about ready to pass out. His eyelids felt extremely heavy and he wanted nothing more than to just fall asleep, but then, in a couple of minutes, he'd have to wake up again. He hated that; he hated being in a car and knowing the ride was short whenever he was tired because that meant that in five minutes someone would be shaking his shoulder and telling him to get up. And he would have to get up. Then he'd sluggishly make his way upstairs and collapse right on his bed without even taking a shower or brushing his teeth.

It was a horrible feeling.

And he didn't want to screw over his hygiene over sleeping in a car.

He most definitely wasn't going to.

He glanced down at his phone to check for any text messages every now and then, but in the end, he decided to stare out the window; nothing special was out there but it'd be more entertaining than observing Armin as he drove or looking down at his lap.

"Uh oh…"

Eren slowly turned to look at his friend. "What's wrong?"

"We need to stop for gas… we're almost on empty."

"Damn it…."

The blond kept his eyes on the road, refusing to even regard Eren. "It'll be quick."

As soon as they stopped at a gas station and parked by a gas machine, Armin turned off the ignition, pushed open the door and stepped out. Any sleepiness in Eren's system was blown out when cold air rushed into the car and jolted him out of his sleepy state, but the cold did nothing to change how weary his voice sounded.

He snapped his attention to his friend. "Do you need my wallet...?" Eren asked exhaustedly before the blue-eyed male could shut the door, taking off his seat belt so that he could reach into his back pocket.

"No, I have mine," he replied. "Don't worry. It's my turn to pay for gas."

The brunet watched him close the driver's door and then nestled back into the seat, leaning his head against the window once again. They were parked at the last machine and facing the gas station's store so he tilted his head down, annoyed by how bright the lights from the store were shining compared to the darkness outside.

He was going to close his eyes.

But not sleep.

Just rest….

And then, in the corner of his vision, Eren saw somebody stumble into the alleyway on the side of the building. But it wasn't just anybody, it was somebody familiar and he didn't get enough time to take in their features before they disappeared.

Sitting up straight, the college student pulled the car door's handle and pushed it open, stepping outside. Armin must have not noticed Eren inching towards the direction he saw the person go because the car's gas container was on the opposite side and he was too busy dealing with the complicated machine to even look up.

Eren knew he had to be careful in case he mistakened someone for somebody else. There was a possibility the person in this alleyway kidnapped young adults in their 20's. There was a possibility that the person just stumbled into the alley to appear helpless, to pull some saint into a trap. Or maybe he was going to get jumped and robbed. Maybe even raped. And the thoughts kept making Eren want to turn around and head back to the safety of the lights of the gas station store, to the warmth of Armin's car, and away from all harm.

But then he saw him.

Eren's breath hitched and he almost wanted to cry because this was too good to be true.

Standing in the alleyway, leaned against a wall was the man who had rescued him from that car this morning, the one who had swooped in like an angel and left like a bird taking off from the nest. He had the same unique undercut hairstyle; and there was no jacket suit over his blue collared dress shirt and it wasn't tucked into the black pants that matched his raven-colored hair. His clothes looked a little wrinkled, his sleeves were messily pulled back to reveal his forearms and his shirt was unbuttoned at the top.

And as soon as he noticed Eren, he squinted those steely, dark eyes at him as if trying to recall something and the younger male smiled. But that smile didn't last very long; it actually dropped too quickly because the man suddenly collapsed and fell to his knees, gagging and shaking violently.

"Hey!" Eren rushed over to his side without a moment's hesitation and dropped to the ground beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder blades and rubbing soothing circles into his back. "Talk to me! Are you okay? C-Can you respond to me?"

There was no answer to the question except more retching noises. He didn't know what was happening to this man, but it didn't seem like he would be able to support his own weight for long. His arms were trembling under him and Eren could feel how tense his back muscles were; he felt them contract under his fingers every time the man choked as if he had to vomit but refused to do so.

The brunet didn't know what to do; he was confused and scared. But he was also feeling conflicted. He wanted to make a dash for the gas station real quick. He wanted to run up to the person managing the cash register, he wanted to yell at them to call the ambulance. But he didn't want to leave him by himself. There was no telling what could happen.

Eren silently cursed himself. If only he had kept his stupid phone inside of his pocket instead of leaving it in Armin's car, then he wouldn't have to worry about leaving the man alone. Cause he couldn't do that; what if he died or what if he disappeared before he got back? What would Eren do then and how could he handle that sort of guilt?

He was desperately patting the man's back now who was still gagging. And he was licking his lips, preparing to yell out for Armin before he felt someone grip his arm. Hard.

Eren met the dark orbs of the man; he had stopped making those choking noises, but his eyes seemed off; as if he couldn't quite see very well because his grey pools flickered and squinted; and refocused. And he was looking around as if he didn't know his own surroundings. And then he was staring at Eren again, intensely, with those bloodshot eyes and he was breathing heavily, wearily as if it hurt every time he did. And that's when the college student smelled it.

The pure stench of alcohol.

The man was drunk.

And here he was stumbling around, lost, with nobody watching over him.

Eren kept rubbing his back and leaned forward. "Um… What's your name?"

The only kind of response the brunet got was one of the deepest sighs he's ever heard in his life, a tired moan and the giving of the man's arms as he collapsed to the ground in a drunken heap.

"Oh, fuck..!" Eren cursed, making an attempt to catch the man before he could hit the gravel. If he wasn't unconscious, he was as close to it as a person could ever get; his eyes were closed and he was as limp as a rag doll when Eren made an attempt to use his body to support the man. He managed to throw one of his arms over his shoulder and could only raise him to a sitting position before he had to yell for Armin.

The blond came running over faster than Eren has ever seen him run before and by the time he made it over, he was out of breath. "E-Eren! I was looking for you, are you crazy?! I didn't want to cause a scene so I didn't shout for you, but I was scared….!" He trailed off, eyes widening at the sight of his friend sitting on the ground, holding up a limp body of a man. "Eren, what are you…?!"

"He's unconscious!" The green-eyed male loudly whispered after hushing his friend. "It's him."

Armin caught on immediately. "Him?! As in the one who saved you this morning?"

"Yes! Now help me lift him up! We should take him home and let him rest there..."

"Shouldn't we take him to the hospital instead?"

"Armin!"

"Okay!" The male whimpered, hurrying over.

* * *

**A/N: Next chapter is in progress! Let me know what you think in a review! I have terrible TERRIBLE things planned for this story and I can't wait to screw you readers over BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- ackkK! And yes, Reiner is important. Compared to the stories I've read Reiner isn't very important in most stories so I feel weird that he's legit all over mine. BUT. He's part of a good chunk of the plot so I guess that's why. I hope you all like reindeers. Just think of him as Eren's second best friend after Armin. Kay. Think that and nOTHing else! Anyway, until next time! ^o^**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well. My winter break is coming to an end. Hopefully if this story interests you, I'll be able to update soon. Thanks for reading and I hope everyone had a good new years! ^_^**

* * *

Eren was unsure of his motives anymore.

Sitting in the backseat of Armin's car, holding the drunk man leaned against him; he couldn't help, but question himself when he thought back to his friend's words. Maybe Armin was right. Maybe they should've took him to the hospital. Maybe Eren was thinking more of himself. Maybe he didn't want to let him go.

And what did he know about an intoxicated person? About how to take responsibility for one?

Absolutely nothing.

About five minutes later, the two college students were back at their apartment, both using their bodies to support the older man as they stumbled up the stairs, filling the quiet night sky with the sounds of their cursing and bickering as to what direction to go, where to step and the like. It was painful enough going up a staircase and unfortunately, they had one last obstacle to overcome; unlocking the door with one hand.

Armin had to reach back for the keys in his butt pocket, leaving his childhood friend to embrace most of the weight while he fished them out and fumbled with the keyhole for a good minute. And when the two were inside, Eren only helped the blond half-carry the man a third of the way to the couch before abandoning him and dashing down the hallway, yelling, "laptop, laptop, laptop!"

A small, almost feminine yelp and a loud thud echoed in the living space, followed by Armin whining loudly, "Eren, what the heck?! You know I have no muscle power!"

"Sorry!" He called from another room; not sounding as apologetic as Armin would have liked.

"If I broke him, it's your fault!" Came the response and the green-eyed male came rushing back into the small entrance hallway, holding his laptop only to find Armin awkwardly positioned on the ground, cradling the man's upper body in his lap. He looked up at Eren with a sheepish grin. "I think I cushioned the fall enough though so maybe he's not dead…"

Eren sighed heavily and shoved the laptop into Armin's hands, crouching down to wrap one of the man's arm around his shoulders and snake his other around the waist. "Google how to care for a drunk man," he said through gritted teeth, noticeably struggling to even get back up to his feet with the new weight.

And Armin did just that.

With the man laid down in a position on his side on the couch, Eren sat close by on the floor of the living room and his friend on the nearby armchair with the light of the laptop screen illuminating his fair-skinned face and his blue eyes.

On the low glass table in the middle sat a pile of the things that were in the man's pocket; his wallet, a couple of keys on a ring, his obvious car keys, his cellphone that had a gorgeous cover with a pair of wings on it, and a very beautiful ring. Eren had thought it would be best to take them out since the interwebs had told them to avoid positioning an intoxicated person on their back in case they suddenly feel the need to vomit so that they can avoid choking. He didn't snoop and even if he tried to, Armin would have scolded him for it.

But he will admit that he may or may not have opened up his wallet in hopes for an I.D. which he did in fact find. And that saved him a question he would have to sleep on all night if the man choose not to wake up that night; his name.

His name was Levi Ackerman.

"Is it just me or have you heard that last name before?" Eren inquired, staring at Levi's unconscious face, listening for uneven breathing, and watching his chest rise and fall as the online guide had instructed.

Armin had his eyes glued to the laptop, leaning on one hand and using the other to scroll. He was reading ahead silently and being more focused on the words than his friend's question, he answered it rather dismissively. "Ummm...yeah….a little…"

"Mikasa has the same last name, right?"

"Mhmm," the blond hummed, still scrolling, eyes unblinking.

This time, Eren actually turned his attention from the man to look at his friend. "Do you think they're….related, or something? I mean, it would make sense, wouldn't it? Mikasa being adopted and all," he muttered in a very hushed and thoughtful tone.

"Sure," Armin replied, chewing at one of his fingernails as he continued reading. "Wouldn't bet on it though. Mikasa told me her surname was a very common one," he said before dropping the matter with a question. "How many breaths per minute did you say?"

Even though Eren wanted to investigate this a little further, especially because Levi and Mikasa being related would make things feel a little weird for him, he knew he had to put the man first. He owed him that much for pushing him out of the way of a rushing car. "I counted sixteen the first time and fourteen the second." When there was no response, Eren prodded, "is that bad?"

Armin shook his head. "No, that's normal," he confirmed before glancing up from the screen. "Now poke him."

"Poke him?!" The brunet basically bawled out in question; unknown to either of them that Levi's closed eyelids twitched at the sound.

"Or you could pinch him if you want?" Armin added, raising an eyebrow at his friend's puzzled expression. "We're checking to make sure he's responsive and doesn't have alcohol poisoning. If he does, that means whether you like it or not, I'm calling the ambulance. I don't want a dead man on my conscious."

From his spot on the floor, Eren scooted closer to the comatose man, silently praying that he would respond as he reached out to roughly poke Levi near his collarbone.

"Mmmm…" the raven-haired man groaned, facial features scrunching up a bit in annoyance before relaxing again. He barely moved at the touch, but hearing the moan was enough to elicit a relieved sigh from both Eren and Armin.

"Thank god," the blue-eyed male breathed with a smile. "Well, no need to resort to pinching. But we're not safe yet, there's few more things; blue lips or fingertips and clammy, cold hands."

Eren switched to a sitting position on his knees, leaning in close to check for blue lips. Levi was cleared; he did look a little pale, but he had a feeling that may have been natural or simply from too much vomiting. It didn't seem like a big deal.

Next, he took the man's hands and looked them over. He could feel Armin intensely staring, waiting for an answer from his friend nervously and the brunet just hoped that his face wasn't red. His fingertips appeared perfectly fine and he noticed that they were neatly kept too. And his hands; they were cold, but they weren't clammy.

"Maybe he has naturally cold hands," Armin concluded softly, already starting to scroll down and skim through the guide. "Some people do."

And nobody had to tell Eren that twice because when he was younger, he remembered the fine line between his mother and his father's hands. The skin of Carla's hand was always so warm and pleasant, so loving. But Grisha's grip was firm and masculine, and if not always, mostly cold even when the weather wasn't. That didn't matter to Eren though; he loved his father nonetheless.

That is, until he left him and his mother to fend for themselves.

There was a sudden echoing vibration and the song Zero by the Varsity Fanclub blared loudly through the room, making Eren nearly jump out of his skin and causing Levi to once again scrunch up his face in his sleep. Armin squeaked as he stood up, throwing the laptop onto the armchair and lunging for his phone laying on the glass table.

Pressing the "answer" button quickly and holding up the cellular device to his ear, Armin breathed a nervous, "hello?" before turning back around and gesturing to the man on the couch with a look of horror on his round face.

Eren glanced back to observe Levi who was still wrapped up in his blissful, drunken sleep as if unfazed by the sound of the phone going off at such a close proximity. Giving Armin a quick thumbs up, he watched as his friend nodded in relief and started pacing the room, attention now on whoever it was on the other line.

"Yes," Armin said. "Yeah….yeah…...um," he searched around for the living room clock hanging on the wall, squinting his eyes up at it. "No, I suppose it's not too late."

Eren blinked. Not too late for what?

Work?

"You're not forcing me," the blond replied after a couple of seconds. "I make my own decisions and I go when I have the time, believe me."

Okay, no. That is not how someone talks to their director, he thought to himself.

As nice as Christa's father seemed; Eren was positive the guy would fire him in an instant if he ever spoke to him in that manner. And there was no way Armin would take that kind of tone with his boss.

"It's not that. You know I've gone before even when I did have to be at the university in the morning. It's not really a big deal, that's what coffee is for. It's just…" Armin paused, eyes flickering to Eren who just stared at him in perplexity and shrugged in response. "It's not bad," Armin went on, speaking to the person on the phone. "It's just…. Eren found a friend of his walking around while drunk and we took him in…"

There was silence.

A silence long enough for Eren to motion to his friend for his attention. Once he had blue orbs focused on him, he mouthed a question. _"Who's that?"_

And Armin mouthed back, _"Someone important. Can I fill you in later?"_

Eren bobbed his head in agreement and Armin turned his attention back to the phone, "Uh, Erwin? ….Yeah, I'll be there. My friend can manage without me, but I won't linger too long, okay? Okay, bye." He pulled the electronic device away from his face and hung up, watching the light screen turn dark before turning to meet the curious gaze of his roommate. His hands went up defensively. "I'll explain later. I promise!"

"Erwin," Eren murmured cheekily, tapping his head with a grin. "Locked in the volt. You better keep that promise or I will hunt you down in all my fury."

"I'll remember that," the blond said, running out of the living room and into the hallway. He must have went to his room because he emerged with one of his jackets in hand as he headed for the door. But the sound of footsteps returned and he popped his head back into the living room, regarding Eren with a hangdog smile. "Apartment keys?"

It only took Eren a few seconds to find it resting on the arm of chair his friend was sitting in not too long ago and he crawled over, grabbing it and throwing it across the room. But at the sound of the clank, Eren flinched and Amin groaned, "why do you keep forgetting that I can't catch for crap?!"

Eyebrows raised and a grin grew wide, suppressing laughter that threatened to escape the back of a throat. Eren knew. This was his best friend; how could he forget? Still, so many things amused the cheeky student to no end and majority of that list was related to Armin. Who honestly had the self-control not to play around with Armin? "Sorry, buddy!"

"It's fine," Armin called out, walking to the entrance. "The laptop still has the guide up so if you need help, refer to it! I don't want to come back to you crying because he died in his sleep from choking on his own fluids!"

Even though he couldn't see him, Eren waved his friend off with a roll of his eyes, recognizing the boy's payback tone."Yeah, yeah, yeah! You enjoy Erwin-senpai; make sure he notices you! I'll just watch this old, unconscious man!" He heard the door close and hummed to himself. "Fun times," he muttered to nobody, crawling back over to Levi's side and glancing at the clock.

It wasn't too late; going on nine, but if he wanted to get in some homework before going to bed, he at least wanted to get a shower somewhere in there.

But then there was this man.

He thought back to Armin's crude joke seconds ago and shuddered, turning a little pale. Maybe the blond had jinxed it; maybe Eren would leave and then the man really would end up joking on his own vomit.

But then again, he was laying on his side just as the guide suggested to avoid the choking.

Eren offered a careful poke to Levi's cheek, yanking his hand back with a surprised yelp when the man twitched, expression hardening as his hand went up to lazily swat at the brunet's. If it wasn't part of his imagination, those grey eyes had fluttered open too, but just for a second.

Levi scratched at his face before returning to his peaceful sleep.

"Jerk," Eren murmured, getting to his feet and disappearing into the hallway that led to the bedrooms. He came back about a minute later carrying a red blanket and threw it over the man. After that he didn't waste much time. As much as he enjoyed a long, hot shower; he made this one quick and a little cold so he wouldn't be tempted to stay. He was thankful for the dinner at his mother's because that meant more time doing homework and less time trying to figure out what he could shove down his throat without requiring too high of a cooking skill level. Moving all of Levi's trinkets to the little dining table near the small kitchen, Eren made sure to make a mental note of that so that he didn't forget (he needed room for his homework on the glass table). So with that; he grabbed all of his supplies, backpack, textbooks and everything else, plopped down on the floor and got to work.

And eventually fell asleep right there; hunched over the small glass table and laying all over his paperwork with his head resting in his arms.

Eren woke up the next morning with hard smack upside the head.

He was jolted from his slumber by the impact and he sat upright in one swift movement, wiping a little drool from the corner of his lips with a scowl. "Are you for fucking real right now, Armin?" He asked, exhaustion still deep in his voice as he rubbed the sleep out of his green-colored orbs.

And once he did; he was startled into a flinch and his mouth went agape when he saw a perfectly conscious and seemingly pissed off Levi on the other side of the glass table, sitting on the parallel couch, leaned forward menacingly. He had his elbows rested on his knees and was idly flicking a pocket knife in and out repeatedly, staring at Eren with that intimidating look.

Eren slid back until he pressed himself against the couch behind him. The threatening expression plastered on the raven-haired man's face rendered him frozen in fear. He slowly raised his hands in a defensive manner, figuring that maybe the man didn't remember last night. Maybe even the drinking last night was making his memory fuzzy. "Put that down….please… I-I'm not going to hurt you," Eren whimpered in a soothing tone.

Levi stopped flicking the pocket knife. It remained out now, blade glistening in the morning sunlight that seeped through the curtains by the living room's TV. "You should be worried about whether I'm going to hurt you," he responded with a monotone hostility. He scouted the area with those steely grey eyes before dropping them right back on Eren. "Where am I? What did you do to me? And where is my shit?"

"I didn't do anything to you, I swear! I saw you walking-" Eren was cut off by the sound of his phone vibrating hard enough to bounce an echoing sound off of the glass table between them. They both looked to it, but Eren didn't dare grab for it until Levi eventually got annoyed by the noise and gave a curt nod of his head. He still made sure to hold up the knife towards Eren when he answered it though.

"Hello…?" Eren breathed into his cell.

"Eren." It was Mikasa. His name came out in a husky whisper of relief and he could easily hear voices in the background too; making out Armin, Reiner and Sasha.

"Where are you, Eren?" Mikasa almost snapped. "You're late and I hope you had no morning classes today otherwise you missed them. We were all worried sick and…" there was a voice. "...and Armin wants to know if you got his text? He fell asleep at Erwin's place so the car is there and..." Another pause. "Reiner, please! And...okay. Okay. Okay! Everyone please be quiet. It's loud enough already in this place. Eren?"

Levi was glaring daggers at the boy now and Eren felt that maybe it was in his best interest to keep this call short. "Mikasa."

"Yes..?"

"I have to go," Eren murmured.

His adoptive sister had the worried, prying tone of voice again; the one that he made him roll his eyes so hard they probably would get lost in the back of his head one day. "I just called you though. Is everything okay? Should I walk over there and check on you?"

Eren's jaw clenched. "Mikasa, please. Are you a virgin?"

There was a little pause and Eren was sure he could feel the confusion on her face through his phone. "Yes…?"

"Am I older than you?"

By the second pause, it was obvious she knew where this was going. "Yes…"

"Then I doubt you're my mother, thank you very much. I'll be there in a little bit, alright?" He hung up like that; not even allowing her to say goodbye. He then turned to the man holding the sharp blade and smiled as big as physically possible. "Coffee?"

"...What?"

"Coffee?" Eren repeated through the gritted teeth of his odd smile. "I can make some coffee and we can talk… please, let me explain, Levi."

"How do you know my name?"

Eren shrugged. "If you let me explain from the beginning, I'll get to that…"

"Kid-"

"Eren."

"...Eren," The older male corrected himself after a hesitation, glancing up at the living room clock hanging on the wall. "Just give me my shit back and I can be on my merry way. I'm late for work and I'm pretty sure you're late for elementary school. They've probably already started coloring the snowman without you."

That made Eren's lips twitch, but he still tried to adopt a calm tone. He needed this man to listen to him. He needed to patch things up and give an explanation as to why he woke up in some stranger's house that he only happened to bump into twice because there was a possibility that he had mistaken being taken in for being kidnapped. Levi could call the police and that would be bad, but the guy seemed more than capable of using the knife, too.

The knife that Eren was unsure of where he even got it from.

"Don't you remember me at all?" He asked quietly.

With a strong hint of irritation, Levi rolled his eyes. "Yes, you're the idiot who was too busy texting to realize a rushing car was headed right for you. I pushed you. May I have my shit back?"

"Coffee and an aspirin?" Eren offered.

At this, the older man narrowed his grey eyes and pursed his lips, consideration glinting back at the college student. His hands went to his lap and though he didn't flick the blade of the pocket knife into the hilt; it was down at least. "And an aspirin…"

Relief washing over him, Eren relaxed and grinned. "So you do have a hangover headache!"

"Well, I'm a goddamned human being so of course I fucking do!"

"Couldn't tell," the twenty year old muttered before getting to his feet to go retrieve the pill. And it was true; he really wasn't able to tell just by looking at the man. From what Eren knew, hangover headaches were the worst and they throbbed like hell, but Levi seemed unfazed. It wasn't too much of an overstatement to say that he had the same pissed off, I-hate-the-world-and-everybody-in-it expression; literally the same look that Eren had saw when he had pushed him out of the way of that car.

Since Eren didn't have instant coffee, they had to wait for it to brew and Levi was given a cup of water to down the aspirin with instead. But while they sat there, he made sure to explain what happened last night; Levi stumbling around drunk, Eren and his roommate bringing him in and taking care of him, etc, etc. And Levi never interrupted. In fact, he didn't really have much to say afterwards; he simply mumbled a "thanks" before asking about his stuff once again.

Eren pointed to Levi's things sitting on top of the dining table by the kitchen and watched the man literally stuff everything back into his pocket, including the knife. Except he kept his phone out and Eren watched as the raven's lips tightened at the sight of whatever it was he was looking at on his cell. The light of the screen easily illuminated the little angry and frustrated wrinkles of his face and the annoyance in his eyes.

He sat down at the table with an exasperated sigh, staring down at the phone.

This provoked Eren to take his eyes off the brewing coffee and to regard the other with curiosity and questioning green orbs. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Eren inched forward on careful tippy toes and leaned on the table, resting his elbows on the wood furniture and placing his head in his hands, his cheeks scrunching together. "Sorry."

"Hm. For what…?" Levi queried, finally turning his attention away from his phone.

"Not planning to wake you up earlier in case you had to work. I should have considered that."

"No shit."

The younger of the two glared. "Well fuck."

This old man really had an attitude, huh? It went well with that face of his, too. Not that Eren really had the right to complain since he had an attitude plus anger issues and was prone to getting his face stuck to his infamous scowl, according to denim Jean Kir-Horseface.

Neigh, bitch.

The raven raised an eyebrow at Eren. "Be careful, your face might get stuck like that."

"Thank you for stating the obvious, old man."

A smile threatened the corners of Levi's lips and he playfully swatted a hand through Eren's messy mass of brown locks. "Heh. Cute. Shut the fuck up," he retorted, surprising the younger male with the softness that mixed in with the monotone voice. "It's alright. To hell with my job, I doubt I'll get fired. That's not what I'm worried about at the moment."

"What are you worried-?" Eren words were sliced through.

The screen of Levi's phone grew bright as it started ringing and his face tightened again, facial features becoming hard. He shot Eren a quick glance before standing up and walking a couple of inches away. If he meant to go further, he must have gotten distracted by whoever it was on the other end because he seemingly got cut off before he could even manage his "hello?"

Eren could almost hear the yelling on the other line and he was pretty sure Levi had not set it to speaker. But he couldn't make out the words. They were too jumbled, hasty and obscured by Levi who was trying to calm the other person down and get his own say in.

"Could you just-?"

"Would you let me explain what-?"

"Just-!"

He watched as Levi paced back and forth, eyes gleaming with infuriation; or a better word may have been hatred. He was arguing with somebody and it didn't seem like they were letting him speak at all. And it was upsetting the man to the core.

"You just love to fucking antagonise me, don't you? I should be the one-!"

"Are you shitting me? I was drunk!"

A long, painful pause.

"And whose fault do you think that-?"

Cut off again, that must have been all that Levi would take because this time he hung up and he let out a vexed sigh, holding the phone to his forehead with his eyes squeezed shut.

Eren almost wanted to get up and go hug him, seeing how drained he looked from an argument that only lasted about two minutes. Instead, he waited until the man relaxed himself.

"Levi…?" He finally chimed softly.

The raven opened his eyes slowly and looked at Eren with apologetic pools of grey; the most emotion ever shown by him thus far. "Sorry. I have to leave."

There was no actual urgency in his voice, but he sounded a little pissed and suddenly fatigued like he could use a good rest. He turned and crossed the living room to head for the door and Eren willed his feet to move hurrying to block Levi's path with his taller frame.

"T-The coffee is almost ready!" He spluttered, scratching his head with a nervous laugh. He honestly didn't want Levi to leave. He wanted to continue talking, wanted to learn a little more about him. And he hoped the coffee could stall the time. "And you look like you could use it…!"

"Move it before I move you myself…"

Though the small space between them made Eren as nervous as his stupid laughter from earlier, he was glad for it because as soon as he scrunched up his nose, a light bulb sparked.

"You should take a shower at least because you smell of..." Eren mumbled, eliciting Levi to raise an eyebrow and look down at his own clothes before taking a whiff of himself.

The raven grimaced.

"...alcohol…"

And the serious stare Levi gave Eren had chills running down the college student's spine.

"Where the fuck is your shower?"

Levi had discarded his things back onto the dining table and Eren was placing Levi's clothes into the washing machine. He had to wait by the bathroom door as the man got undressed just to trade in his clothes with something of his own that he figured Levi could fit. And the thought of him wearing his stuff amused him more than it should have. But it also made his face grow red with embarrassment (as he noticed when passing the mirror sitting in his room).

He wouldn't admit that little fact to himself though.

Levi seemed to be taking his time scrubbing away the stench of alcohol off his skin so Eren passed by time by giving attention to the flock of animals, also known as his friends, who had spammed his phone like mad with text messages:

**Coconut Head:** I cannot believe I'm texting during class hours. You're okay, right Eren?

**Rein-deer:** I see Armin texting in class. He looks nervous and really obvious staring down at his glowing crotch like that and I want to laugh so fucking badly holy shit ;-; help me

**Ymir:** Better not miss Music Theory fucker. Christa wants to partner up with you for the project

**Horse face:** Art teacher ain't here today so I have a free period, Eren. Where the fuck are you, Eren? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed, Eren. I hope you changed my contact name, Eren. WHATISITEREN

God, Jean. That joke was getting old, Jean. Shut the fuck up, Jean.

**Annie:** Mikasa is worried about you.

Thank you, captain OBVIOUS.

**Sasha: **Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile! YES I DO! It fills me up with sunshine all the while! YES IT DOES! 3 #brony4life

Eren rolled his eyes at the last text, hoping that Sasha hadn't taken him seriously when he jokingly agreed to cosplaying as Rainbow Dash with her and attending a con someday. He didn't partake in watching the show as a routine, but he caught it every now and then while watching the foster kids back at his mom's; and he had to admit; Sasha could pull off Applejack if she really wanted to. But him and rainbows? That was a whole different issue.

Like hell he was going to do that anyway.

He took the time to reply to all of them before putting his phone to the side and going into the living room so that he could pack up the mess of homework and papers that he left scattered around. He packed what he needed into his backpack and lazily threw everything else that wasn't required today onto his bed. After that, he got himself dressed. Another december day meant more of the fucking cold. Hurray.

Since the chances of anyone seeing what was underneath was extremely low; Eren threw on whatever looked decent enough. Over his Skrillex T-Shirt and his jeans, he pulled on a hoodie and wrapped a scarf around his shoulders before exiting his room. And by the time Levi came sauntering back into the the kitchen, Eren was sitting at the small dining table, peacefully sipping his hot coffee from a mug.

And then he nearly spit it out.

Levi was wearing the old sweatshirt Eren had gotten for his birthday two years ago; navy blue with white sunglasses and a white mustache forming a face at the front. He had it rolled up to the elbows and it complimented his forearms and the lighter blue jeans he wore with them.

Eren almost wanted to run up to the man and tackle him into a hug for being so cute.

Almost.

The face he was making kind of ruined it.

"I'm going to kill you," Levi mumbled through gritted teeth. "I look like a goddamn teenager."

Eren nervously waved him off. "No! You look…." he struggled for a word other than 'cute' because he actually wanted to avoid his face being rearranged. "...nice."

"Smart…." Levi mused, straining to observe the clock in the living room from his spot. "I don't want to miss anymore time. Is my shit dry yet?"

Before Levi even managed to finish the question, Eren was already shaking his head. He knew the drier and the washer like that back of his hand; and it usually took a long time to get even a load through. He and Armin always had to be aware of the time when it came to getting their laundry clean before the weekend ended. Either that, or the one who didn't have to worry about making it to the University early for a morning class would be stuck separating and folding clothing before they set out.

Levi stared at Eren for a brief moment before walking to the table in a hurry, grabbing his things and cramming what he could into the pockets of his jeans. "Fuck it…. I have a shitload of similar clothes anyway," he said under his breath before pausing to eye the car keys resting in the palm of his hand. "Oh great…"

"What now?" Eren inquired, looking up from his coffee.

"I left my car in the parking lot of a fucking stripclub."

"Stripclub?!"

Eren's orbs of green met with intimidating pools of grey.

"Oops. I didn't mean to assault your innocent mind with such evil things," the raven-haired man feigned with an insincere, sarcastic tone. "Yes, you shitty brat. People actually go to those places. And I don't trust those damned parking lots," he turned around, starting for the living room so he could get to the front door. He seemed unaware that Eren had gotten up too and was pursuing him as he mumbled to himself. "I seriously need to go. I'll be lucky if nobody tried to break my windows. And I'm already late for work. What a great fucking day so far."

"Wait a minute!"

The way Levi suddenly spun around on his heel, and so quickly too, startled Eren's entire body and made him step back at little. He even almost fell, but he caught himself and regained his composure swiftly. "...Once again, I'm not a shitty brat! Nor was my mind assaulted!" He retorted, face turning somewhat rosy. "I was just caught off guard…!"

The man hummed. "Yeah? Well. If that's all you had to say, I still need to be on my way."

Eren didn't even give him much time to turn around before he grabbed his arm. The two stayed in that position for a couple of silent seconds; Levi's back slightly to Eren who still had a firm grip on the man's forearm.

"What do you want now, kid?" Levi asked; his words jumbled up in a groan. "A 'thank you'?"

"It's Eren."

"...thank you, Eren. Now let go."

Eren pursed his bottom lip, feeling a bit hurt by said man's insincere gratitude. But even so, he tried his best to cover it up as he spoke. "Let me drive you there at least so you're not walking out there in the cold…. please?"

Levi looked the younger male up and down carefully with an irritated scowl. "What the fuck is with you and helping me? Don't you think you're being fucking weird?"

"Don't you think you curse way too much?" Eren murmured questioningly in a counterattack.

There was a long pause before Levi opened his mouth again, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand. "This is about me saving you, isn't it?"

Eren didn't answer.

Was it about him being rescued? He didn't know. Did he feel like he owed Levi? Maybe a little bit. But then again, if that was all, then why did it feel like there was more to it? Why was there this feeling of wanting to be around Levi? Wanting to talk to Levi and wanting to get to know more about Levi? Why were those feelings present too?

That's what confused him. And that's why he couldn't answer.

Levi yanked his arm free from Eren's grasp and regarded him with a surprising softness in his eyes that was never there before.

"Fine. You can take me there."

Besides Levi giving Eren directions and antagonizing him about his listening skills whenever he asked "there?" or "you said left, right?", the drive was the definition of quiet.

Eren wanted to talk more, but he only felt like he'd be annoying the man further and the last thing he wanted was for Levi to hate him. He hoped that maybe he'd appreciate a good silence at least. He came off as that type of person.

Not the type of person to go to a stripclub though. That's what surprised Eren the most. He looked more like a man who would run a professional business or be the head of an important company. Suits, ties, the whole package. He'd probably stay up and work, work, work. Perhaps his free time would consist of reading, writing, vacation trips with co-workers…

Boy, was Carla was right about not judging a book by it's cover.

"_Even if the title is in english; everything on the inside could be written in japanese."_

That had been her example to the ten-year old Eren. And that's the type of book Levi was.

"Oi, kid."

Eren snapped out of his train of thought, sideways glancing at the man. "Ah! Yes...?"

Levi pointed at a big, flashy building coming up. "There. Sina."

Well, at least it seemed flashy. The building didn't look out of place or anything, but it was huge; bigger than the surrounding places. It was a light shade of brown and the big letters that spelled out "SINA" weren't on, appearing dim and dead, but Eren knew that they probably glowed bright at night like most clubs did.

It almost made Eren nervous, being this close to a stripclub. He liked to party, but this was a place Carla had warned him about; a place where women were sexualized and seen as objects. She hated it and when he had turned eighteen, she even sat him down to talk to him about it since some of the said clubs allowed people his age if no alcohol was being served.

He knew he wasn't going in; the place wasn't even opened. But it still made his stomach flip and he had to silently congratulate Levi for being able to step foot in the building much less go near it without turning a little pale.

And as soon as he thought that, Levi prodded his shoulder. "Hey, you alright?"

"Mmmm…. where's your car?"

Levi pointed.

A little high pitched gasp from Eren and the raven rolled his eyes and face palmed, refusing to even look up. And the brunet was glad for that because he was sort of fan-boying in his seat from the pure beauty that was Levi's car. "Is that a Chevy Malibu?! HOLY SHIEEET! IT'S SO SHINY TOO! I wonder if I could see my reflection on that hot piece of metal! Do you keep it clean or is it new?!"

No answer.

Realizing the error in his ways, Eren relaxed in his seat and unconsciously fixed his messy hair before clearing his throat. He leaned in and poked the man's arm apologetically.

"I swear if you do not drive, my foot goes up your ass!"

"OH!" The sudden threat startled Eren back into his own side and he grabbed the steering wheel once again. "Okay, okay! Sorry! So scary."

He gave it a few more seconds though. That should have been long enough for Levi to cool himself down a little to avoid buying himself a one-way ticket to the underworld.

"Pretty car!" Eren blurted fast.

"UGH!"

The annoyed groaning of the man elicited a laugh from Eren, but the smile dropped quickly when he parked beside the Malibu, realizing that he and Levi would be parting ways here.

They hadn't bonded much, but he believed that was only because of the rush they were in and in any other circumstance they could manage something more. Or at least the rush that Levi was in; Eren honestly didn't care if he was late. It definitely wouldn't be the first time.

Attempting to mask the frown on his face, Eren turned his head and opened his mouth to speak, but found himself speechless. His eyes widened and his jaw slacked. "..."

In the little time that he knew Levi, he figured the man never smiled. Ever. But his breath caught the back of his throat when he noticed the small rise in the corner of his lips as if he had the urge to smile or maybe even laugh. And Eren hoped that he played a part in making that happen.

Levi was seemingly trying to get himself together, glaring out the passenger window. After a few seconds, he exhaled deeply and looked back to Eren. "Alright. Thank…" he trailed off, raising an eyebrow with that jaded expression of his. "...you…? Why are you staring at me like that?"

Play it cool, Jaeger.

"...like what..?" Eren asked in a pained whisper.

"Well you're looking at me like a damn puppy that just got kicked."

"I…."

"And you're blushing," Levi added.

With a quick curse under his breath and a flood of nervous movements, Eren managed to check himself in the rearview mirror. And followed by the groan was him rubbing at his cheeks with his sleeves like the red in his face would just come off if he tried hard enough. "Am not...!" He retorted, voice muffled by the fabric of his jacket.

And in his frantic rubbing, he could hear shuffling and he stopped, looking up to see what Levi was doing.

Their faces were inches apart suddenly. Eren could feel cold fingers grip his jaw, cupping his cheeks. His breathing hitched and he couldn't help feeling like a little animal caught in a bear trap. Levi wasn't doing anything; he was just staring and he looked like he was on the edge of grinning. Those steely grey eyes were bright in a teasing amusement.

Eren's breathing relaxed as soon as Levi pulled away, slumping back to his own side. He clutched his chest and took a deep breath, trying and failing to calm his pounding heart. But even so, his face scrunched up and his green pools narrowed. "You…! Why?!"

Without peeling his gaze away from the younger male, Levi unbuckled his seatbelt, but Eren had no intention of letting it end there. The college student unbuckled quickly and basically threw open the driver's door to get out. The cold racked his entire body, but it didn't stop him from rushing around his car to confront Levi just as he was stepping out of the vehicle.

He didn't even let the man close the door before pressing Levi to the car with his body and trapping him on both sides with his arms. Those dark eyes stared up at him, unimpressed and visibly unfazed.

And Levi leaned against the car, waiting, giving Eren the silent okay that he at least wasn't going to retaliate with any type of violence.

"You look upset." The raven-haired male said.

"I am! Your teasing didn't amuse me in the slightest!"

"Oops."

Eren stared at him.

This guy was really confusing; a trait that would usually turn Eren off in an instant. One moment he was practically an angel in disguise, saving college students from getting hit by speeding cars; the next, he was a drunk stumbling around and vomiting. Then he a knife wielder who was just as intimidating as his natural expression and a smartass at that too. And then he was a working man who understood that he still had to work, a quality Eren's mother always told him to look out for, but also valued his personal hygiene.

Then he was nice, then an asshole, then a tease. It truly interested Eren to no end. There were so many qualities and traits in such a small male. And so little time. Not nearly enough time for Eren to uncover them all. Though in all honesty, he wanted to unveil the one he met the morning before; the one who saved his life.

Eren leaned down and pressed his lips against Levi's; pressed their bodies together in a haze. He didn't know what his intentions were or what he hoped to gain from it. He just wanted to do it; wanted to finish what Levi started just moments ago in his car.

Levi's lips were dry, but they were also warm and Eren couldn't help smiling into the kiss because he felt like the cold around had ceased in those seconds. Those seconds that didn't last long because Levi turned his head and pulled away.

And Eren wasn't going to push it; he was starting to feel like that hadn't been the best idea. He stepped away from Levi, hands behind his back and head hanging. "Sorry."

He could see the man standing up straight now and he closed his eyes, figuring that maybe he would get slapped across the face dramatically like in those old TV shows, but instead he felt a soft tap under his chin, one hard enough to make him raise his head.

Levi was staring at him and he didn't look upset at all. In fact, much to Eren's astonishment, he seemed amused. "Color me fucking impressed. I don't kiss on the first date but you've got some balls there, kid."

"Two, specifically..." Eren murmured, trailing off before he suddenly choked on his own saliva as Levi brushed past him in a teasing manner. "W-What?! This was a date?!"

The raven-haired man pulled out his car keys and unlocked his car. "When did I say that?"

"Just now!" Eren said a bit too frantically, his words stampeding over one another desperately. "You said you don't kiss on the first date and are you teasing me again? I don't like being teased, old man! I will hunt you down…." he trailed off, voice adopting a more calmed tone. "...hey, wait a minute! What about your clothes? How will I give them back?"

Levi stopped, considering it for a moment.

"We could meet somewhere later…?" Eren suggested quietly, silently praying he'd agree.

"Alright." The raven said before motioning towards the Sina Stripclub. "Here. Tonight. Maybe at ten. You do remember the directions, right?"

Eren nodded in confirmation. "Yeah…" He did, but this place had been stomach-turning enough while closed. He couldn't possibly imagine being around it when it was open. And his mother had warned him about these types of clubs. Eren wasn't particularly a momma's boy, but he did respect Carla and her intuitions; and he had seen proof of her wisdom more times than he could count much less remember.

"Great," Levi said, opening the driver's door of his red Chevy Malibu before leaning down to search for something inside. "Then just walk right in. And you better fold my shit or I will kick your ass right then and there."

"Levi…"

"Eren."

"Am I….old enough to get in?" He asked almost reluctantly, nervousness etched in his words.

It was a while before Levi pulled himself back out of the car again with a small black bag in his hands and he eyed Eren up and down before answering with a question of his own. "How old are you…? Don't tell me you're under eighteen."

He shook his head. "Twenty… I don't turn twenty-one until next week."

Levi pursed his bottom lip and then gestured for Eren to hold on before returning to searching his car. A few seconds later, he came out with a black pen in his hand and he shoved the bag into the college student's hand, grabbing his free arm to write on it.

"What are you doing..?" Eren inquired, trying to get a better look of what was being written on his tanned skin.

Levi pulled away and released his arm. "You should be able to get in now. By law, you need to be twenty-one since Sina sells alcohol. The business has been trying to fight for eighteen and up to attend as long as they do the whole 'marking the minors with an X' thing, but it hasn't been passed yet."

Eren stared down at his arm; 'Levi Ackerman' was written in cursive near his wrist with weird markings that looked like SINA in some sort of graffiti. "You have that much of an influence that they'll let me in with just this…?"

The man shrugged. "You could say that."

"Sounds like we're going through a lot of trouble for some clothes..." Eren murmured uncertainly, starting to feel a little queasy. "We could meet somewhere else..."

"My schedule is packed all day. You can tell the bouncer to call for me and I'll meet you by the door if you're that scared to go inside."

"I am not!"

Levi rolled his eyes and gave Eren a slight shove to the chest. "Sure. Now get the fuck out of out here. I've had enough of you already and I have to see you again anyway."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry this was updated a day later than Archive &amp; Quotev's. Finished the chapter late . anyway. Here's chapter 4, following Armin's POV.**

* * *

Leaned against the car window of the large black Jeep Commander, Armin was about ready to pass out. He seriously had no idea where the time went, not that he was too surprised considering how often this happened whenever he went to help Erwin late at night. It was like a bad habit that he was completely aware of but continued with it nonetheless. At least those late nights led to him keeping a spare backpack for school at Erwin's place so he didn't have to be late driving all the way back home to get his things.

But still maybe it was a good idea to relax it a bit. He was conscious of the fact that it was screwing with his school life and his sleeping schedule, especially since he was finding himself rushing his homework early in the morning and being forced awake by Eren instead of vice versa.

And then speak of the devil. Armin sighed as his mind settled on the thought that his friend had his boyfriend 'locked in the volt', as he stated last night. Knowing the brunet, he wouldn't forget. There was no way in hell he would let it go. He'd have to tell Eren soon, about Erwin and about what he's been doing so late at night that resulted in him breaking his old curfew.

From the driver's side, a handsome blond man sideways glanced in his direction at the sound of the sigh and knitted his eyebrows together in concern. "Armin…? What's wrong?"

Armin tensed and pursed his bottom lip before looking towards the older man. "Ah….n-nothing, Erwin. I'm just…"

"Tired?" He inquired, lips tightening into a smile that made Armin tense up even more. With the shape Erwin's lips were making, he already knew what was coming up and if the man honestly planned on saying it, Armin wanted the ability to get upset and hopefully pout for proper effect.

But it didn't help that Erwin was looking as sharp as ever with his black business jacket over that white button up with the complimenting black slacks. How could he force himself to be upset at his handsome older boyfriend when he was dressed to fucking impress?

Armin, on the other hand, had no time to be driven back to the apartment for a change of clothes due to early classes so he, reluctantly, was wearing what he had on yesterday which was only slightly wrinkled, but wrinkled enough to bother him to an extent. It was a shame.

"I am not tired," Armin retorted, sitting up in his seat just to prove his point even though he so badly wanted to slouch and take a long nap. "It's merely that morning feeling….I feel slow is all."

Erwin raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Very."

He seemed to ignore that completely, squeezing the wheel in an iron grip. "Armin, I did say you didn't have to last night, didn't I? No need to force yourself to come every night simply because you're my partner. I do understand you have college to attend… It's what I signed up for when I decided to take someone younger than myself."

He hadn't even finished talking and Armin already had his blue orbs narrowed, a response boiling within him. Nobody ever saw him as a risk taker, did they? He was the nerd of the group. The one who was smart and seemed to only care about school, right?

"I go when I want," the blond college student blurted out, sounding a bit more indifferent than he had meant to. The silence that followed indicated that Erwin was either caught off guard by the counter comment or was desperately trying to figure out what to say next so Armin added, "I mean, yes, sometimes I overachieve and take on more than what fits on my tray, but…." he shrugged his shoulders, "I don't...really mind."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said," Armin responded gently with a small smile even though Erwin couldn't see it because his eyes were too busy on the road. "Ever since I met you, Erwin Smith, you've allowed me to be spontaneous. And I love it."

The man's bright ocean-colored pupils lit up. "Yeah?"

"Mmm." Armin confirmed with a soft hum before taking a deep breath and continuing. "I'm the cliche nerd of the group because I'm shy….because I'm a bookworm...because I actually do study….because I refuse to drink my ass off or do drugs like the rest of the 'cool' crowd." At this point, his voice was becoming softer and more dreamy. "And since the day you came up to me at the coffee shop and showed me another world… I've felt amazing. With the attention and how I feel like I just fit in with everyone else makes me feel, I don't know, alive."

"The Rose does that much for you?" Erwin asked in a curious whisper.

"It does…and so do you. Now I just have to explain that to my best friend."

A red light at an intersection put them to a stop and Armin felt eyes land on him. He turned his head from the window and met with Erwin's piercing gaze which seemed to be studying every nook and cranny of him."Which part?"

"Everything. The Rose and you. He's been wondering why I've been coming home so late."

"Ah….Eren?"

Armin turned in his seat. "I've mentioned his name before?"

"No," Erwin mused, his eyes flickering towards the red street light as it turned green. "I can read your mind is all. I've had the power since I was born when my mother gave birth to me on the eleventh planet of the universe."

The blond student made sure to smack the man on the shoulder as he placed his hands back on the wheel, but it was obvious that a smile was threatening his lips. There was no doubt that Erwin had the worst sense of humor, but the fact that he tried so hard always made Armin want to crack up and hug the man for at least making an attempt.

A yawn forcefully danced its way off of Armin's tongue and out of his mouth, tears forming in the corners of his eyes and sleepiness etched in his voice all of the sudden. "But yeah….Eren."

"He's the one who has a birthday coming up soon?"

Armin nodded. "Yeah…"

"The Rose would be a great place…" Erwin chided. "It's a…" He took a long, painful moment to consider his next words. "...uh….a relaxed kind of bar."

The petite blond actually thought that idea over for a good few seconds before biting his lip, his face scrunching up as he eyed the older male through his peripheral vision. "Are you speaking as a businessman who kind of co-owns The Rose or a boyfriend giving loving advice?"

"I think I lean more towards the latter," Erwin playfully responded with that sly smile that always made Armin blush madly. And he found himself causally reaching up to touch his now warm cheeks. Yeah, they were warm.. Of course they are.

Curse the power of Erwin Smith.

He did have a valid point though. Despite the loud blast of the music that Armin was sure would one day make him go deaf and the prowess of the crowd who attended on a daily basis, The Rose would be a good start for Eren. The last thing he wanted was for Eren to go somewhere too overwhelming on his first night even though The Rose would be overwhelming enough, his first night or not. He would just have to make sure that at least Reiner or Jean had him in their sights when he didn't. The best way that he could explain it; the people at The Rose's audacity and feistiness on a scale of 1 to 10 was an 11 and he didn't want anybody taking Eren out of the building or better yet, out of the sight of his friends.

Armin winced and mentally slapped himself for thinking like that.

He had no right over Eren in that way. He was not Carla Jaeger and if his friend wanted to leave with someone, Armin had no right to stop him, but it was simply the ulterior motives of others and the impulsiveness of his easily-angered friend that worried him. He didn't want Eren to be wrapped up in a dangerous situation that involved nightclubs.

"Are you alright, Armin?" Came Erwin's deep, gentle voice and it snapped the college student out of his own mind and back into reality.

"H-Huh?! Oh. Oh!" He tried to put on a genuine, I'm-not-lying-please-don't-ask smile. "Yes…"

But Erwin did ask. Of course he would ask. "You were silent for quite a while. And you look somewhat upset and pale, like you're going to vomit. Are you sure you're alright? If you're feeling sick or don't feel like going to school, I can take you back."

With his less-than-satisfying-scores recently, there was no way in the depths of tartarus that he was going back home. He didn't have the time to be missing classes and work this time around. Besides, he wasn't even sick to begin with…

Armin shook his head slowly and cleared his throat after a few seconds of silence. "Erwin…?"

"Yes?"

"The Rose isn't really relaxed…"

The man raised an eyebrow at the statement and peered in his direction carefully as if trying to pinpoint where he was coming from with the comment. Armin knew how sharp Erwin was with reading him so he stayed quiet and allowed it to sink in until he heard the other sigh heavily.

He offered a reassuring smile. "Armin, when I say this, I'm speaking as a friend giving you advice and not as someone who makes money off of The Rose. Considering other nightclubs in the area like Sina, The Rose is honestly pretty relaxed. You have to understand that clubs are clubs, there's a meter on how crazy each one is, but none of them aren't because they sport the same idea…"

"Same idea…?" Armin uttered, trying to push him on.

"Yes," Erwin replied. "Or motto...such as…" He thought for a few seconds. "I don't know; 'party hard, get drunk, strip, grind and fuck bitches."

If there was no emoji for the surprised face, anybody could have easily taken a picture of Armin's face, cut out the background and used it because he felt no words could describe how shocked he currently was. Luckily they weren't outside considering how low his jaw hung; he most definitely didn't want flies flying into his mouth while he was trying to figure out how to close it.

Erwin's gaze briefly flickered off the road and to Armin, and he seemed to be attempting to control a little chuckle until it eventually broke into pure laughter. Whatever face Armin had been wearing must have been absolutely hilarious because his fit of giggles was rather lengthy; the longest Armin's ever heard it be since they met.

After he relaxed himself, he cleared his throat and recomposed his business-like persona. "I'm sorry about that. Anyway...yeah. You did understand my point though, right?"

"Never again will you say that," Armin murmured monotonously, staring straight ahead.

"Say what?"

At the question, Armin snapped his blue eyes right onto the man and he could have sworn that Erwin flinched; it was very slight but still there. "Your example of a nightclub motto."

The older male proposed a weak grin and it looked like he wanted to start laughing again. "Did I sound unattractive?" He asked, turning into Shinganshina's parking lot.

"Very unattractive."

After Erwin stopped the car in front of the university, he reached past Armin, opened the glove compartment and pulled out a red rose, offering it to the little blond male. "Take this and consider it my most dearest and humblest apology," he said it almost playfully, but the look on his face was sincere and had Armin blushing all the way to his ears.

He took the rose without even thinking of the thorns because he already knew there was none to begin with since Erwin gave him one often. It was as much of his signature as it was The Rose's. People got the flower all the time at The Rose, hence its name, but the thorns were always removed beforehand.

"Thank you…" Armin trailed off as Erwin leaned in, noticing the man wiggle-waggling his eyebrows. "Erwin, stop being weird!" He cried, giving the man a soft shove of his shoulder.

He knew he didn't mean it though. The way Erwin relaxed around him and acted like himself made Armin happy, and thinking about that now made him dread getting out the car. As soon as he did, he would miss the man and be forced to endure hours without him. It sounded like a pro-longed torturous chore to him even if he did like learning.

Lost in his own thoughts, Armin's breath caught when Erwin cupped his cheeks in his hands, their faces so close that he could feel the man's breath against his lips. He squeaked when Erwin left a loving peck on his mouth and expected him to pull away, but instead he leaned in closer and Armin squeezed his eyes shut bracing a bite to the ears that never came.

Erwin chuckled. "Don't tell me how to live my life," he breathed in a low, almost seductive tone that had Armin's heart quickening. Until he said, "I can be weird if I want to."

Armin shoved the man away with a little giggle. "Go to work!"

"Then go to school," Erwin countered, gesturing to the university.

He obliged, straightening his clothing and grabbing his things before leaning in to surprise Erwin with a kiss to the cheek and opening the car door. "Bye!" He called over his shoulder, hurrying to run up the stairs to the university.

* * *

"Yo, Armin…" Reiner started in a whisper, stopping to put down his pencil and beginning to pop his knuckles like he always did whenever he wrote for too long. "Are you writing every fucking thing he says down or what?"

On the other hand, Armin was writing down notes like their was no tomorrow, using cornell note-taking style, leaving bullets to mark subpoints and highlighting nearly his entire page. He had no idea why Reiner even asked that question considering he's copied notes from his journal many times due to his slow writing and their teacher's haste in getting through the lesson. But that wasn't why he was writing nearly everything down. It was actually because he found psychology to be quite fascinating and even though Reiner looked bored in the class, he could tell the male did too, especially since he never fell asleep in it.

"Maybe," Armin mused in a hushed, playful tone as their professor went on speaking.

"Psychology does fit in with the components of music which is why we'll be focusing on music therapy for a few weeks. For example, your favorite song is probably your favorite because you've associated it with an emotional event in your life. The type of music you listen to can affect how you perceive the world."

Armin's face lit up at the facts and he hastily made note of them in a side bubble. "Interesting… did you know that Reiner?" He asked the blond sitting in the stool beside him as he went on writing, pencil gliding over the paper with ease as if it were second-nature to him.

"Nah. Makes sense though."

"Right? Remind me not to listen to any sad, depressing songs about how unwanted I am."

The bigger male started to chuckle quietly as the room became silent, everyone too busy writing the information seen on the Smartboard at the front of the class. The atmosphere was enough to give Armin the shivers because while he did like the peace and quiet when he studied, he disliked it in public places, especially classrooms. It was as if people would hear him even if he breathed as softly as physically possible and that made him uncomfortable. And the sad part of it all was that he figured he felt that way now because of the loud aura and the blaring music of The Rose finally became the norm for him.

A loud buzz sounded from Armin's butt pocket and against the stool the vibration of it echoed much louder than it normally would have. Armin silently cursed himself for not setting his phone to silent after texting Eren earlier and hung his head only to snap it back to attention at the sudden thud beside him.

Armin looked up, as did everyone else, to find Reiner's eyes widening almost innocently yet somewhat comically as he shrugged his shoulders at his fellow classmates. "Whoopsy. Sorry. I accidentally slid my journal off the table with my arm." He shot everyone a goofy grin as he reached down to pick it up. "Sorry. Sorry. Continue on with your lives."

And that's what everyone did. They all turned back to the front of the classroom as the professor asked if everybody was finished copying the information from the powerpoint slide. Armin cracked a small smile and regarded Reiner instead, placing a hand on his shoulder gratefully. "I appreciate the distraction. That startled me…"

"No problem. I mean, I'm sure my popularity meter dropped by like negative five points or something, but anything for my little coconut head." Reiner watched as Armin pulled out his phone and tried to look casual, sneaking it under the table and switching it on. "Who texts you during class hours?"

The light flashed up at Armin's face in the darkness of the room and for once, he was glad Reiner made them sit in the back in the beginning of the year. Eren's name was under the little notification popup that read 'new text message' and he eagerly opened it, hoping for some good news from his roommate.

Then his face scrunched up. "I am not- do I really look like a yellow coconut head?"

There was a snort on Reiner's end. "No," he groaned. "It's because you look like that one guy from Ned's…you didn't watch TV much when you were younger, huh?" Armin turned his head to the blond and blinked, blatantly confused. "You know what? Maybe that's why it's not funny to you. Okay. Never mind, Armin. One day, I'll force you to watch it and burn all your books."

"Shouldn't it be burn all my books and then force me to watch it?"

Reiner made it obvious how annoyed he was by the remark, eyebrows knitting together as he folded his arms over his broad chest. "Up shut. I properly can't english, you Nazi Grammar."

The smaller blond giggled, tiny shoulders rising and falling with his laughter. "Maybe that's what you should be majoring in then, huh?" He joked, finally returning his attention to the device in his hand, eyes squinting because of the bright light of his phone.

**Eren:**_ If by fine you mean woke up to a hot-not-so-unconscious-and-scary man wielding a knife then yes. Just fucking peachy. That's why I hung up on Mikasa earlier, but I'm alright. I'll fill you in later? And I appreciate the love...and whatever the hell brony smile-smile-smile fucking Sasha sent me. I replied to everyone's spam but make sure they all know I'm okay. Mikasa, especially. And based on what Reiner told me, you should probably turn down the brightness on your cell if your crotch is glowing._

Armin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, peering in Reiner's direction. "Yeah, thanks for telling me that my crotch was glowing the whole time I was using my phone in class," he retorted with a playful roll of his eyes, taking a quick detour to his settings to decrease the brightness.

"Sorry," Reiner replied with a grin. "The humourous side of me just didn't want to see it go."

Returning to the messages to respond to Eren, he took one more glance at the message, scanning over the first line about five times only to realize that he never did ask about that man they found last night. If Armin''s memory served him right, his name had been Levi Ackerman. And just like that, that weird feeling was back again. It was the same one he felt last night when Eren brought up his name. But it wasn't his surname that tripped Armin up, it was his first name.

Where had he heard Levi before?

* * *

Reiner popped his knuckles and stretched the whole way to the courtyard in front of the library, Armin trailing behind with both his and his own textbooks in hand. He hoped he didn't look like he was struggling even though he admittedly was. He was not built for carrying around extra luggage though the thought made him smile just a little considering he mentally carried extra baggage all the time. Such as keeping secrets like older boyfriends who own nightclubs from best friends. And he was now beginning to wonder why he did so in the first place. He knew Eren and Eren wouldn't judge him.

Nearly dropping the textbook at the top of the pile he was holding, Armin squeaked as he shifted to push it back towards himself.

Reiner let out an amused sound that was stuck between a laugh and a snort as he grabbed all the books from him, including the one's that weren't his. "Nice squeak. It was very attractive. Heh, you're adorable. Don't ever get muscles or work out. Just...just stay like that."

Armin was unsure of whether he should've felt insulted or not, but he decided it was some sort of compliment and took it as such. "Gee, thanks. I think," he murmured, looking ahead towards the table they usually occupied whenever they decided to sit outside.

He noticed two figures already there and was about to double back and tell Reiner they should find a different spot when one of them glanced up and waved a hand to them. "Armin! Reiner! Over here!" And he recognized the two-toned undercut hairstyle all too well.

He and Reiner picked up their pace and found Jean and Marco sitting on the benches, homework and pencils spread before them on the table.

The black-haired, freckled Marco Bodt beamed up at them. "You guys have time before your next class to just hang out?"

"Hell yeah," Reiner confirmed as the two begin to push their stuff out of the way for the them.

After a bunch of exchanging notes and helping with classes and work, the four begun to conversate about the normal things such as terrible teachers, people they didn't like, shows and fandoms and the like. Except Armin didn't see bringing up nightclubs and The Rose in their future until Reiner spoke up.

"Oh yeah, by the way. I told you guys that Eren might consider going to a nightclub for his birthday, right?"

"REALLY?" Marco suddenly lurched forward as he shouted that, half-way off the bench and hands pressed against the table, supporting his body weight. He had noticeably startled everyone, Jean nearly falling off the bench as he jolted to the side and Armin practically leaping into Reiner's lap. His expression had brightened now and Armin thought that if it were possible, his eyes would have been sparkling too. "Sorry…" he lowered his voice to a soft, exasperated whisper. "Really, really? Nobody told me about that! Sounds exciting!"

Armin didn't notice that his fingernails were digging into Reiner's shirt until the bigger blond had started to pry himself free from the grip. "I didn't?"

Jean shrugged. "He was in class with Bertholdt when you mentioned it to everybody, remember?"

At the mention of the tall male, Armin could have sworn he saw Reiner's lips become thin and form a slight frown. Whether anyone else had caught it, he wondered, but the blond played it off as fast as it appeared on his face so it very unlikely. His re-composure was a success but the sudden change of his tone said otherwise. "Right…"

Armin wasn't going to press it. If something was going on between Bertholdt and him, he wasn't going to ask and make a scene in front of the other two. Knowing Marco, he'd turn serious in an instant and have one of those heart-to-heart conversations with him. But it seemed that Reiner needed Marco's happiness right now, not his sympathy.

"There's The Rose-!" Armin blurted before slapping a hand over his mouth, regretting it immediately afterwards. He had wanted to keep the conversation going and lighthearted, but he had no intention of bringing up the nightclub, not when he wasn't ready to.

Everyone had their eyes on him now, shooting him concerned and confused expressions. Jean reached across the table to peel Armin's hand away from his mouth. "The Rose?" He asked. "What the hell is that? A nightclub?"

He was squeaking now, feeling a sweat start to come on. "W-W-Well…"

"Armin knows nightclubs?! How cool is that?!" Marco cried ecstatically, holding up an open palm to him. "High-five, Armin!"

He hesitantly obeyed and high-fived Marco softly. "E-Eh!"

Reiner finally chimed in now, leaning on his elbow with a grin. "Come on, Armin. Spill the beans. What's The Rose? Ever been in there before? Is it cool?"

Armin almost wanted to stand up and bolt out of there, maybe even go home for the day, but as soon as Jean and Marco leaned in as well, mimicking Reiner's position, he knew they wouldn't let it go until he gave it up. They had gotten comfortable. It was obvious how curious they were.

"I-I've been in there lots of times…" he mumbled quietly, looking away in case judgemental eyes tried to break his spirit.

He paused, but nobody said a word, almost as if they were waiting for him to continue.

"And…?" Marco pressed, excited eyes unblinking.

"You're not going to say how surprised you are that a dork like me went to a nightclub?"

Armin watched as the three of them stared at him, then at one another, then back at him. It seemed like Reiner was speaking for them all when he said, "what's the point in that? It's always the innocent ones who do the crazy shit first."

Jean clicked his tongue in agreement and winked; Marco nodding his head quickly.

Once again, Armin was unsure of whether that was a compliment or not, but it felt like it was, especially with the curious, awe-filled eyes each one of them regarded him with. And just being looked at like that made his face turn red with embarrassment. "Okay, okay. I'll tell you guys."

Marco's expression lit up again just like it had earlier and he excitedly leaned against Jean as Armin started to explain what The Rose was like.

He explained the club to the best of his ability from the most noticeable and biggest attributes to the smallest of details that most people would miss. He told them about the lights; how they never failed to be colorful, always a mixture but mostly consisted of green, purple, blue and red. How the girls at the doors handed people thornless roses at the entrance, how the crowds moved as one on a dancefloor covered in rose petals, their bodies controlled by the powerful DJ. Special events such as paint and water fights, dance-offs, drink challenges.

Armin was lost in his own description of the club, but as soon as he threw himself back into reality, he noted the open-mouthed and longing faces of his friends.

"Majority straight?" Reiner inquired.

"Predominantly gay and lesbian, actually..." Armin countered, though he didn't see how it mattered to Reiner. He knew he had a thing for the ladies too even if he did lean more towards his own gender. "I've met and seen plenty of straight people there. The club has no set sexuality….one of it's most endearing qualities if you ask me."

Jean exchanged glances with Marco and rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Sounds like a great club, don't get me wrong. Honestly, Eren better agree to this one. But….if we take Ymir and Christa, do you know how hard she's going to swap spit with that blonde as soon as we're in?"

It came out sounding like a question, but considering that it was Ymir they were talking about, Jean most likely meant it more like a statement. As in, 'if we do go, Ymir WILL make out hardcore with Christa'.

Armin smile widened and he tried to hide the grin that was beginning to form on his face. "Well, Ymir holds back for us all the time here, we all see the way she stares at Christa. Let her go wild at The Rose, nobody said you had to watch. You'll be too busy with Marco to notice them anyway," he nudged with a sparkling glint in his eyes.

Marco must have missed the actual intention of 'busy with Marco' because he pumped his fists in the air and shouted, "Yeah! Me and you, Jean! Doesn't The Rose sound amazing?!"

But from beside him, Jean's face was becoming a little flushed and he narrowed his eyes and looked away, running a nervous hand through the light brown of his hair. "Jesus, Armin! We will not! Shut up!"

"It could happen….!"

"We'll set up the bets for this, won't we, Arlert?" Reiner teased with an eyebrow wiggle.

Armin was having fun watching Jean's face turn into a tomato unlike the grinning Marco who was probably too busy fantasizing about the nightclub to notice. "That we will, Braun."

"How about whether Jean has to get Marco drunk or if he can tap that while he's sober?"

"Marco will probably have to be drunk."

"Sounds like the winning card to me," Reiner speculated.

Jean already had that deadly glare of his forming upon his face and now that Armin was finally noticing it, he squeaked and scooted closer to Reiner in hopes for protection. In contrast, Reiner had a shit-eating grin sitting on his face and he didn't drop it even when Jean pointed a finger at the two blondes. "You. Both. Suck. Ass."

Reiner seemed about ready to counter when Marco suddenly leaped from his spot on the bench and waved. "Bert! Bert! HEY, BERTHOLDT!" He yelled and everyone followed his gaze to see Bert looked as timid as ever from across the courtyard. Marco was basically motioning him over now and as the taller male complied, Armin peered at Reiner who didn't appear as happy to see his boyfriend as he normally would.

Yeah, something was definitely going on between them and now that Bertholdt was on his way over here, things were about to get a little awkward.

With the situation at hand, Armin was glad that Bertholdt wasn't clingy or brave enough to ask about sitting with Reiner. These tables normally seated two to a bench, four of them around each circular table. Marco was with Jean and Armin tried to avoid eye contact with Bertholdt so it didn't seem like he was purposely not moving to give Bert his spot. He did like the tall male, but it was easy to tell that Reiner wasn't very fond with him at the moment and Armin was sure that the last thing he wanted was to sit by him.

As soon as Bertholdt sat down, Reiner exhaled deeply through his nose but loud enough for Armin to hear and it almost sounded like a sigh of relief. He wasn't meeting Bert's gaze, but instead looking around the courtyard despite it being nearly vacant.

But luckily, Marco was on Bertholdt in a second, leaning forward eagerly. "Bert! Bert! Okay, so we missed a lot that one time Mr. Ackerman kept us back…!"

Armin's breath caught in the back of his throat. Had Marco just said Mr. _Ackerman_…?

He almost opened his mouth to question Marco further, but closed it as soon as he saw him deep in detailed conversation as he filled Bertholdt in on what he missed. He to curse his politeness because the curiosity was overwhelming and was already beginning to eat away at him. Had he and Eren really had one of the professors of their school in their apartment last night? And if it were true and Eren seriously was taking a liking to the man….

Armin flinched out of his own thoughts when Reiner set his hand on his head and pulled him in close to whisper, "thanks for not moving. You saved my ass."

"Yeah….no worries," he muttered, grabbing the front of Reiner's shirt before he could pull away. "Hey, uh...Reiner? Do you take that art class? The one Marco and Bert are in…?" He tried to sound casual while keeping the concern out of his voice when he asked, but he could feel the words cracking as they left his throat and he hoped the blond wouldn't question it.

Reiner shook his head. "No. I can't draw for shit. I've never set foot in the art department. Why?"

Feeling that it wasn't his right to give Reiner the details, he pursed his lip and made an attempt to drop the subject. "Ah. Okay. Never mind."

He and Reiner straightened up and Armin could feel Bertholdt staring at them through his peripheral vision. Reiner was once again looking off into another direction as Marco went on to repeating the details of The Rose from earlier. Armin felt so out of place so he pulled out his phone awkwardly and turned it on to check the time, not expecting to see the new text message icon sitting on the top bar of his screen.

Thankful, he flicked the unlock screen away to find a message from Eren.

_**Eren**__: I'm pulling up soon. My classes are starting a little later. Know if anybody doesn't have class? I don't feel like being by myself._

Armin didn't even think twice. He pocketed his cell phone without even responding to the text and stood up from his seat. Marco stopped mid-sentence and turned to the small blond, directing Jean and Bertholdt to him as well.

"Where are you going?" Reiner looked up at him with a confused scowl that must have started growing on his face as soon as Bertholdt came along.

"To the front," Armin said, picking his backpack up and placing it on the spot he sat just moments ago for Reiner's benefit. "I'll, uh….leave my things here. Eren will be here soon and since I have the time, I figured I would just be there when he drives up. Heh, been worried about him all morning and haven't seen him since last night so..."

Reiner sat up too now. "I'll go with you. I kind of missed his dumbass remarks this morning."

Whether he was being truthful or simply trying to get away from Bert, Armin didn't know. Or maybe both scenarios were true, he wasn't going to stand in Reiner's way or ask him to wait with his 'boyfriend'. So he nodded and turned to leave, Reiner in his wake as he waved at everyone. "We'll be back. If you have class, don't worry about our things, just go!"

Armin was little more than eager to get away from the group and Reiner seemed to share that common interest as well because as soon as they were far enough, the bigger male heaved out a big sigh and rubbed his temple soothingly. "Thank god…."

"It felt awkward for you too, huh?" Armin asked with a sideways glance.

"If it was awkward for you, just imagine how I felt. Bertholdt has once again started radiating that awkward, pessimistic aura since I began pulling away from him."

Armin tilted his head in curiosity, blue eyes looking over Reiner like a word search puzzle. "Started pulling away from him? When you know he gets like that without you? Why?"

"Same reason as the last time…"

"The same reason you won't tell anyone?"

The blond winced. "It's….personal."

Armin gave a slight nod of his head to show he understood. He really did, that one thing you just didn't want to tell anybody because it felt too personal. He knew the feeling all too well. "No, I get it. I won't pry where I don't belong. But if you ever do want to tell somebody, I'm here…."

"Thanks, coconut head."

"Yeah, Jean was right. You do suck ass."

* * *

The rest of the day literally should have been labeled 'take care of Eren' day.

By the time Armin and Reiner were at the front of Shingashina University, Eren was lazily making his way from the parking lot and he looked absolutely fatigued.

It turned out that he barely drunk any coffee this morning, too absorbed with Levi at the time. He left with only about two sips of the beverage in his system and it was already losing its buzz. So whenever he had the free time, someone who had no classes was stuck watching a sleeping Eren. And when Armin heard Ymir had him for a while, he went out of his way and pretended to go to the bathroom just to make sure the girl wasn't sticking gum in his hair.

She didn't have gum today and Armin thanked the heavenly skies for that.

When the university's hours were up, everyone said their farewells and went their separate ways. Armin was walking with Eren to his mother's bakery shop, a place they worked free of charge whenever they could just to help Carla out. The business wasn't the best, especially not today because Carla needed to start baking some more, but customers still came. Hannes would even come by and chat with them or with Carla before leaving with a Jaeger-baked pastry in his hands. He did it more so to advertise which Armin thought was quite sweet of him.

He didn't mind the silence of the store when it was just him and Eren sitting behind the counters, it gave them time to talk about things that needed to be said.

"So….Erwin," Eren mused, allowing a grin to form on his face.

Armin regarded his friend with a nonchalant blink of his eyes, having seen this coming. "Yes. Erwin. He's...uh." He clasped his hands together, resting his arms on the glass counter that held pastries inside. "He's my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?!" The brunet repeated in a surprised cry.

"Mmm…"

"For how long?"

Armin was bouncing on the balls of his heels, his body refusing to stay still due to the nervousness that racked his entire being. "Not that long...let's say since I started staying out late...? So about a month."

Eren lurched forward, leaning in close with an accusing look in his eyes that made Armin whimper and back away with every step his friend took. "It's that serious and you never told me?"

"That is not serious, Eren! A month is nothing!"

"Like hell a month is nothing!" Eren retorted loudly, grabbing Armin by his petite shoulders and squeezing a squeak out of him. He almost had the resemblance of an excited school girl who just got asked to the prom by her crush. Or maybe even an otaku who's OTP finally kissed after three seasons and became canon. "When do I get to meet him-?!"

"Later!"

"Promise!"

"I-I promise, Eren! Now don't break me or I can't keep it!" Armin pleaded.

The green-eyed male shot him a quick warning glare that seemed to say something like you-better-or-I'm-gonna-kick-your-ass before releasing his iron angry German boy grip. He returned to his previous position, leaning against the counter and watching the door for customers. "Great...boyfriend, check. I believe you still owe me further explanation."

Armin was straightening his clothes out and stopped, face becoming pale at his friend's last sentence. He had hoped that Eren wouldn't remember that part, but then again, he had told Reiner and the others about The Rose and Eren was the one making the decision. He couldn't hide that part even if he so desperately wanted to.

"O-Oh okay….so, um. I….I-I work at The Rose…" He murmured as he squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for Eren to turn and snap at him for being so stupid and for working at such a place, especially late at night without letting him know where he was.

Except that never came.

"What's The Rose?"

Armin opened one eye and met the gaze of Eren. He had his head rested in one of his hands and was watching the blond expectantly, awaiting an answer to his question.

"It's a nightclub…"

The way Eren's green pools widened was almost animated and his jaw dropped low enough to leave him looking ridiculous. Armin would have laughed if he wasn't borderlining between whether the reaction was a mind-blown-no-way-that's-cool one or the why-work-at-such-a-place one. He had to catch Eren before he assumed anything.

"It's not a stripclub or anything! Just a bar... I-I mean, there are dancers! But they don't strip so…" By the look on Eren's face, he wasn't making any actual progress with this. "I only do things like event planning and helping out around the bar. That's it…"

The brunet's face was finally relaxing and Armin let out a sigh of relief.

"You understand now then, Eren...?"

"Yeah," he confirmed even though he still looked a bit taken back by the whole idea.

Armin reached up to feel his pounding heart and closed his eyes with a smile. It felt good to get this off of his shoulders. Now Eren knew and there had been no judgemental comments from his end just as he expected. So now to advertise a bit. "The Rose is one of the nightclubs everyone wants to go to, especially Marco. You should have seen have excited he was when I told him about the place! It'd be a good club to attend for your birthday. Eh, eh?" He playfully nudged Eren's shoulder with his own.

He didn't seem to be buying the bait though. "Mmm...maybe. Or… What about _Sina_…?"

Armin felt his blue orbs nearly pop out of his sockets, it was as if they were bulging out of his skull. But they had every right to. He couldn't believe what he had just heard come from Eren's mouth. How did he know about that club? Why did he? "D-Did you say Sina…?"

"Yeah," Eren said, turning around to face his friend. He looked extremely interested all of the sudden, much more than when The Rose had been mentioned. It was like that's where he wanted to go for his birthday instead. "You know the place? Do you work there?"

Armin was shaking his head now, arms raised up in the air as if trying to defend himself. "No, no, no! Eren! That's a stripclub!"

"But I can get in!" He claimed, expression brightening up as he pulled back the sleeve of his jacket. "Look!" He was holding his arm up for Armin to see, and the only thing that could be seen was a nicely written name in cursive that read 'Levi Ackerman' and a graffiti styled 'SINA'.

Armin recognized the name immediately. Levi Ackerman. The man who saved Eren from being hit by a car. The man who stumbled around drunk and was taken in by him and Eren. The man who was beginning to wrap Eren around his finger. The man who possibly was a teacher in their university.

And Armin couldn't begin to fathom what would happen if that last one were true. Eren was the legal age of consent, sure, but Shinganshina had a policy against it. If they started doing something and the school found out? They would both be punished to some degree and not that he cared, but Levi would most definitely lose his job too.

"What does that have to do with getting into Sina?" Armin had snapped the question, he hadn't meant to, but he was practically losing his mind. He feared what he would hear next.

"He goes there every night and has power there. Apparently if I show the bouncer this, he'll let me in!" Eren almost sounded giddy.

"Eren, I don't that's such a-!"

"Maybe we can all go if I ask him!"

Armin wasn't very happy to have been cut off. He was yelling now, desperate to get his point across."The legal age is twenty-one, Eren! Not everyone is old enough!"

He felt fingers wrap around his forearms, pulling him forward excitedly. "Come on, Armin!"

"Eren, no! The only reason you want to go is because he's there!"

"Not true!"

There was no way Armin was falling for that bull. He knew that was why Eren wanted to go. He was squandering his friends and the fact that they wanted to take him somewhere to spend time with him because he wanted to be around some goddamn man who he had met a _day_ ago. Heck, does a day ago even count? He didn't even know the man's name until what- last night? And how had he learned that name? He did it by snooping through an I.D. card.

Armin didn't know it, but he was slowly shaking his head now, eyes becoming watery as he bit down on his lip to keep the angry tears at bay. He had never been so upset with Eren in his life and he's known him for years. The brunet had finally stopped throwing him around and was watching him with a concerned face, all the happiness draining from his expression.

"Hey...Armin…?"

The thin strand that had been holding steadfast finally snapped.

"You know what….? You know what, Eren Jaeger?!" Armin cried through gritted teeth, regarding Eren with a stormy blue eyes that stung with tears. He yanked his arms free with a forceful tug that made his friend stumble backwards. "I doubt this man is worth all your friends combined! I HIGHLY DOUBT IT! AND THIS CLUB? SINA? REALLY?"

Armin was advancing on his friend in a way he never knew he could and Eren nearly tripped as he backed up, using the counter to catch himself before he managed to take the plunge.

"If he goes to a place like- LIKE THAT? EVERY night? Don't you think that's bad?! Don't you think that should ring any WARNING bells in your head?" Armin's fists were balled at his sides now, shaking with the rage that started building up since the man became the main idea of their conversation. "If he breaks your heart….Eren…! If he...breaks your heart! Or fucks you over…! Metaphorically or physically! DON'T COME CRYING TO ME!"

With that, he gave Eren the finishing blow; a hard shove to the chest that sent him into the wall. Armin took this opening to run, he bolted for the door and made sure to throw off the bakery apron before retrieving his things near the threshold and running out of the store.

And he didn't look back.

Eren didn't deserve that much.

But Armin knew that neither did he himself.

_Because he was a hypocrite_.


	5. Chapter 5

As Eren looked through his closet while listening to Hitch rant on about her school life, he realized just how much clothes he actually had. With his full wardrobe here at his mom's and the one back at his apartment, he had as much outfits as a girl with a fashion complex. Not that he was complaining. All his good shirts were dirty back home and if he was representing all the underaged people at Sina, he was going to at least try to look decently attractive.

Or that's what he was telling himself even though he knew damn well he didn't want to look like he didn't give a flying fuck about his appearance in front of Levi. That, and there was Armin.

Earlier, he hadn't even tried to chase after Armin back at the bakery. He was absolutely dumbfounded by his friend's sudden screaming and he couldn't even so much as open his mouth to counter back then. It was as if his throat tried cosplaying a desert, becoming so dry that he lacked the salvia to relieve the parched feeling on his tongue. He had the vivid image of the blond's expression transforming into something twisted and stormy, those blue eyes sharpening as he yelled, and yelled, and yelled. And Eren couldn't even respond.

He had never felt so intimidated by such a small male before. No, he had never even been shoved to the ground by one. Eren would never forget how easily Armin summoned strength he never knew he even had and sent him tripping over his own feet and flying into the nearby wall, hitting the back of his head in the process.

And as much as he wanted to, he avoided calling Armin or returning back to their apartment. He couldn't; not when there was a risk of bumping into him. It seemed like what his friend really needed was some space. And that's what Eren was going to give him. All night if he could manage. If he could get Levi to allow him to stay longer than he intended to.

But in the morning, he'd find Armin and he would apologize even though he was the one who was mistakened. If Levi were a bad man, he wouldn't be here right now. He would either be laying in a hospital bed in a full body cast after being knocked out by a speeding car or he'd be six feet underground.

Right?

"...And I really, REALLY don't like him. He always pulls my hair," Hitch grumbled from her spot on Eren's old bed, kicking her legs with both hands snuggled under her butt. She continued speaking, not even catching Eren flinch as he jumped out of his own thoughts. "And my friends say that means he likes me, but...! Eren, why do boys do that? Why do they tease and pull hair when they like a girl?"

Eren didn't even turn around and went on rummaging through his closet with an accompanying sigh. "Ah, I….I'm not sure. I suppose that's what they do when they don't know how to put it into words." It was an honest response on his part because he was just as confused about the whole idea as she was. But if he had to guess, then his bets were on immaturity or forced denial of crushing on somebody.

"Did you do that, too?"

With a red plaid flannel shirt in his hand, Eren suddenly turned to face Hitch, his eyes wide with an expression that gave away how caught off guard he was by the question. Honestly, he was unsure of how to answer that since crushing on girls was never really part of his childhood in the first place. He had no interests then, not even in guys. He didn't like anyone as a kid and if anyone liked him; he never noticed. He was too busy bottling up the stress caused by the tension between his mother and father at the time.

The girl stared at him for a few seconds, batting her eyelashes like she always did when she got impatient. But just as Eren was about to open his mouth to reply, her gaze flickered to the shirt in his hands and then back to him. "You should wear that."

Eren glanced at the shirt and threw the catty child a suspicious look, eyebrows knitting together. "This flannel shirt? This PLAID flannel shirt?" He made sure to emphasize the word 'plaid' to ensure that she knew what she was saying just in case her eyes weren't working properly and it left Hitch giggling a bit too mischievously for his liking.

She shrugged. "It really brings out your eyes...?" The way her voice became uncertain near the end made the statement sound more like a question and Eren couldn't control how hard his eyes rolled.

His lips tightened as he tried to keep his growing smile at bay. "This shade of red does jack for my eyes. You just want me to wear this, don't you?"

"Yeah," Hitch mused and when Eren tilted his head in her direction, her shoulders bunched up in a second shrug before slumping back down again. "What? I just want you to see what you look like in a flannel shirt!"

With a little reluctance and an amused shake of his head, Eren decided he go with the plaid shirt anyway considering he didn't want this trip to Sina to be dragged out and proceeded to remove his T-Shirt. He had no problem doing so in front of Hitch since he as only changing his top garment and was buttoning up the flannel when his phone started to buzz.

It was right beside Hitch and she must have been zoning out because it startled her enough to send a violent tremor through her body as she clutched her chest. "Sh….!"

Eren stopped what he was doing and regarded her with glinting emerald eyes as if he were eagerly awaiting for the word to come out completely. She clamped her hand over her mouth, noticing the pleased look on his face. "I-I didn't say it!"

"You were so close," Eren responded with a disappointed sigh, walking over to Hitch with his flannel half-way buttoned and ruffling her hair playfully before picking up the phone. He didn't notice the scowl she shot his way as the screen lit up his face and 'Reiner-Roo' flashed across it; the contact photo of him and Reiner making idiotic expressions at the camera. A smile crossed Eren's face as he pressed his thumb against the answer button and held the device to his ear.

"Reiner-Roo."

"Jaeger-Meister."

There was no way Eren could contain the huge shit-eating grin that plastered itself right onto his face. That was a new one, but it still sucked. No matter how hard Reiner tried, no nickname he came up with ever matched the stupidity level of 'Reiner-Roo'. And Eren wondered why he didn't just give up. He would never be superior in the nickname challenge. Never.

"What's poppin'?" The brunette inquired.

From the small silence, Eren already knew that Reiner was going to crack something stupid or gay and he was already regretting phrasing that question the way he did.

"An erection. For you."

"Wow," Eren feigned an impressed tone of voice, making sure to emphasize how legitimately terrible those words were. If there was anyone who could ensure that he'd feel pain from four words or less, it was Reiner. "And the award for the most dumbest pick-up response goes to Reiner. Cue the fucking crickets, please."

There was the echo of clapping on the other end and Eren was positive that Reiner was congratulating himself, but for what was the question. Either it was for cracking the most stupidest pickup line to ever exist on the face of the universe or using it on Eren and causing him emotional distress. If it wasn't the latter, it was probably both. Whichever it was, he was still proud of himself either way considering the dorky voice he put on. "Thank you, thank you! I'll be here all year-round! ….Except for next thursday because I have an exam that day!"

"Will you be stupid all year-round too?"

"Of course! Except for next thursday," Reiner chided, rewarded with a shake of Eren's head that he couldn't even see. Eren at least hoped he could feel it through the phone. "So is Armin coming with or what? I was hoping we could stroll around like the boy versions of a Mean Girls trio. I think I'd fit as the middle bitch since I'm sexier than you, but Armin and I are both blond… Holy shit! Mean Boys, yes…! Eren, we must.."

Eren missed most of what Reiner was saying at the mention of his friend's name. He was too busy silently cursing himself out with every single word he could think up. He had forgotten that he texted Reiner that he would ask Armin if he wanted to go with them to Sina, too. As much as he hated to admit it, he felt better knowing that familiar friends would be with him at such a nerve-wracking place.

Except his attempt to gently sneak Sina into the conversation at the bakery was a complete backfire. With Armin technically having experience at clubs, he assumed it would make convincing him much easier, but it didn't work out that way and Eren's head ended up colliding with a wall. Eren wasn't sure what Armin had against strangers named Levi or stripclubs, but he wasn't going to ask and end up summoning the He-Man in the small blond.

"...Eren?"

Eren snapped to attention at the sound of Reiner's voice and scratched the top of his head, millions of fake excuses running through his head. "Oh. Uh, Armin can't…..unfortunately. He's tutoring Sasha and Connie tonight."

"For real…?" Reiner breathed, sounding so genuinely disappointed that Eren could have had a clear, vivid assumption of the gloomy look that was probably on his face at the moment. "He's the first one of us to go to a nightclub, and he's ditching us and dancing, naked people for tutoring..."

"Yeah," Eren murmured a bit too quickly, wanting to change the subject. "Um, he told me grades are more important. Plus, he set up the tutoring before I asked so he'd be ditching Connie and Sasha if he came along with us."

There was a little pause on the end and Eren had to glance at his phone just to make sure he hadn't accidentally pressed the 'end call' button with his face. He heard Reiner sigh loudly on the other end before a dismayed, "Okay" came through the speakers. "So much for Mean Boys the prequel."

The corner of Eren's lips rose into a small smirk. "That's what you're upset about?"

"Yassss!"

* * *

Hitch had managed to wake a groggy-eyed Mina out of her peaceful nap and tow her back into Eren's old room before he left. It wasn't an overstatement to say she excitedly half-dragged, half-carried the weary, flailing girl through the doorway before gesturing to his outfit with a grin and a few wiggles of her eyebrows. When Mina looked Eren up and down, she silently gazed into Hitch's eyes and her face brightened up, suddenly alert and awake as she freed herself from the other girl's grasp and bolted out the room.

Eren had eyed Hitch with caution, lips pressing together tightly and he told Reiner to be there in five before hanging up the phone.

It didn't take long for Mina to burst back into the room and hold up a red beanie; it was nicely sewn and stitched together with a needle, a masterpiece woven by the fingers of such a young girl. It wasn't a surprise to Eren that Carla wanted to so badly buy her a sewing machine.

There was even little white letters that spelt out "E.J" stitched onto the front, meaning it was being given to the person that was meant to own it once it was made.

"I was waiting until your birthday to give it to you, but here! You get it early because Hitch says it matches your outfit," Mina said with a tiny smile.

The little formation of her lips made Eren smile even now as he sat in the passenger seat of Reiner's black Grand Cherokee. He could see his smirking reflection in the window, but just barely considering that it was dark outside now.

Dark, and he was going to a stripclub.

He'd be lying if he said he wasn't trembling, that his heart wasn't quivering with nervousness and that his teeth weren't slightly chattering, but he was still smiling. The biggest he had since Armin had yelled at him earlier today. Mina and the hat. Hitch. Reiner.

And Levi.

Yeah, he had other people. He could survive without Armin for a night and he most definitely wasn't going to allow the blond's outburst to bring him down either. This was his night to leave a lasting impression on Levi Ackerman.

"What the fuck are you grinning about, Eren?" Reiner probed from the driver's side. He had both hands on the wheel, eyes were focused on the road, but it was obvious he had been side-glancing at Eren. "Excited to tap some lady booty tonight?"

Eren made a face. "Lady booty? No. Man booty. Maybe." His arms crossed over his chest as he leaned back into the seat. "Maybe they'll have some gay strippers. I wouldn't mind that."

"Your gay persona is showing."

"Good! Cause that's what I am! And everyone can fucking suck it."

Reiner chuckled, eyes squinting at the red light across the intersection. "Nice choice of words, dork," he teased, reaching over to playfully tap Eren under his chin before his hand was slapped away. "Bitch. With the way your beanie is pushed back on your head, I'm sure the ladies will get the message and steer clear."

Eren's eyes rolled so hard that he momentarily felt as if they'd remain stuck in the back of his head. His tongue clicked. "Fuck you and your Rock Revival Stewart Shirt!"

The blond feigned hurt with a gasp, clutching the front of his gray shirt dramatically. "This shirt is my baby and you shut your mouth, Mr. Red Flannel. I am the definition of fashion! Search the word and my picture will be right there next to it."

Both the males were staring at each other now, trying to maintain a straight face even though it was blatant how badly they wanted to break into hysterical laughter. It was one of the many qualities Eren loved about his and Reiner's friendship. They could argue, seriously or not, and somehow they'd always resort to lightheartedness and grin ear-to-ear at the end of the day.

Eren wanted that sort of thing with Armin. But he was too serious. Too….suspicious…

As the light turned green once more, Reiner stuck out his middle finger to Eren which was returned all too quickly. They both had shit-eating grins on their faces and Reiner placed his hands back on the wheel, attention now on the road, still smirking.

But the intersection led to sudden echoing of music and Eren's grin dropped, heart beginning to pound as his fingers squeezed the bag in his hands. The fabric of it only served to remind Eren how much of a liar he was to himself, how confusing he actually was.

Reiner was turning into the parking lot now and Eren was chewing his bottom lip.

"This club is fucking loud…..do they not get in trouble for that…?"

Too busy coping with his own confusion to answer Reiner, Eren's mind was running wild, frantic and hypocritical. He could only hope that he wasn't sweating as hard as Bertholdt did on a hot, sunny day with no winds. He could only hope that he wasn't making a stupid decision just to prove Levi wrong; prove that he could walk into a stripclub, no problem.

He wasn't a kid.

He wanted to be at Sina. But this place was giving him vibes.

He wanted to see the look on Levi's face when he stepped past the threshold of the club. But he wasn't so sure it was worth the trouble.

He wanted to take this risk. But the comfort of his bed sounded amazing right now.

He…...wasn't sure what he wanted to do anymore.

A hard smack to the back of his head sent Eren tumbling back into reality and he became rigid, turning his attention to the grinning blond who had committed the crime. "I know the club is pretty on the outside, but the inside is probably better, just sayin'."

He and Reiner were sitting in the parked car, facing Sina and the bright, flashing letters of the building. At the door, it was easy for them to see the line extending quite the way as people waited to get checked by the man standing watch before going in.

Eren made sure to purposefully scowl his friend's way as he rubbed the back of his head. "Fucking hell….who knows how many damn IQ points I just lost from that smack alone…"

Reiner laughed cheekily. "Oops, sorry. Sometimes I don't know my own strength!" He piped before giving Eren a hard slap to his thigh and rushing out the car before the brunet could even reach across to return the favor, his laughter booming on the way out.

But that was alright because as soon as Eren was out of the car, he managed to knee Reiner in the ass.

It was the best accomplishment of the night thus far.

The wait in line was a bit tedious and Eren entertained himself by attempting to pluck away Reiner's wallet chain from his black pants every now and then. He always got caught, but that was the best part because annoying Reiner was his job. It's what the gods of heaven had sent him to do when he was made.

When they reached the front, Eren was practically caught off guard and ended up backing right into Reiner. The bouncer was a tall, well-built man. His dark blond bangs were parted down the middle and on his calm, serious face adorned a mustache and a beard. The name tag over his chest read, "Mike," written with nice handwriting in black marker.

Eren was about to roll up the sleeves of his flannel when he felt Mike loom over him, leaning in close to sniff his hair. And it was too close for Eren's comfort, resulting in him leaping back into Reiner and nearly dropping the bag in his hand. Both of them must have been as equally shocked and disgusted by the act because they then exclaimed simultaneously,

"What the hell?!"

"What the fuck?!"

On the other hand, Mike seemed rather calm and unfazed, despite the looks he was being given by everyone in the line behind the boys. "Are you Eren…?" He asked quietly, peering at the now uncovered signature written on the brunet's arm.

Despite the suspicious feeling arising in the pit of Eren's stomach and the protective glare being shot Mike's way by Reiner, he stepped forward cautiously. "What's it to you?"

"Well fuck," Mike said with an expressionless face. "I've been told that I can let in some….underaged, annoying brat with shit-colored hair and mucus-green eyes," he seemed to be checking out the features as he pointed them out. "...named Eren."

As soon as the word "annoying" came from the bouncer's mouth, Eren was slowly boiling inside, olive-toned skin becoming redder as the insults went on. If that's how Levi described him, he definitely was about as much of an asshole as he looked, even though he apparently took a break every now and then from that persona by saving "brats" from being hit by cars.

What did this guy have, multiple personality disorder?

Noticing the slight twitching grin on Reiner's face, Eren made a mental note to get the blond back later before regarding Mike again. "His words, not yours…?"

The man snorted. "Yeah. I don't think I'm that cruel. He doesn't mean it though. The more you get to know him, the more you realize that's just how he talks." His eyes flickered to the bag in Eren's hands. "That's his clothes?"

Having forgotten about the bag after being insulted, Eren was startled by the question and followed his gaze to the bag. "Uh...yeah…" He looked up with a sheepish smile. "They were dirty and I washed them…" He trailed off, catching the little thoughtful glint in the man's eyes as he opened his mouth and then closed it again.

It was as if he wanted to ask something, but wasn't sure whether it was such a good idea.

And it made Eren wonder, but he wasn't going to push for it. Instead, he yelped.

"R-Reiner!"

From behind, Reiner had shoved his hand into one of Eren's back pockets and managed to whip out his I.D. before pulling out his own. He stepped up and held out the cards.

"May we go inside and get the booty now?" The blond inquired as he wiggled his eyebrows with a grin plastered on his stupid face.

The corners of Mike's lips moved slightly in amusement as he pushed open the black entrance door. "You may."

"Rephrase the question."

With a heavy sigh, Mike declared unenthusiastically, "You may go inside to get the booty now."

Before Eren even had the chance to point out how stupid that was, Reiner had grabbed his arm and was practically dragging him into the colorful corridors.

"Reiner, calm the fuck down!"

"I am calm!" The blond boomed in response.

Eren was just about to counter that obvious lie, but he and Reiner both came to a sudden halt as they entered a massive room of a multiple colors, their jaws going slack in awe, the familiar song invading their ears.

_I want your tongue twister!_

The ceiling lights were practically going wild, littering the room with flashes of red, blue, green, with more colors than Eren could even keep up with. To their left was a long stage that ran almost all the way to the other end of the huge room, a few dancers could be seen nearly half-naked, both female and male swinging their bodies around poles and to the beat of the song blasting off the tall walls. Surrounding the stage was an enormous multi-layered dancefloor occupied by a lively mess of sweaty bodies being controlled by the rhythm and a DJ turntable stand elevated on a higher floor could be seen nearby with speakers at it's edges.

_You got me beggin' for your head spinner! _

_I want it! I want it!_

To their right was a bar, seats around it, separate tables nearby and booths by the walls almost all the way around. People were yelling excitedly and hollering, laughing loudly and drinking. A couple of virtually revealing women and men were walking around and dropping off beverages as if they were attendants. And Eren found himself having an internal struggle, caught between being absolutely turned on and being extremely scared.

_Let's get loud!_

_Cause I can't fight the feeling of your tongue twister!_

Reiner turned to Eren with a giddy glint in his eyes and opened his mouth, but when his lips moved the music overtook him in a second.

_I want it!_

_I want it!_

"What?!" Eren shouted over the blaring sounds.

The blond rolled his eyes and grabbed Eren, towing him away from the stage and dancefloor to the area near the back by the bar. He grasped the other's shoulders in his hulking iron grip, took in an over exaggerated breath of air, and then yelled, "I SAID this place seems shady AND DIRTY! I LIKE IT VERY MUCH."

As soon as nearby people heard him and looked their way, Eren turned somewhat rosy in his cheeks and swung a quick fist into his friend's stomach. "Reiner, lower your damn voice!"

Reiner seemed unbothered by the punch. "...oh! Sorry!" He looked around before whispering, "I like it! I like it!" To the beat of the song's '_I want it! I want it!'_

Eren was shaking his head with an idiotic grin on his face. Reiner did have a point. Despite his self-consciousness, the place didn't seem all that bad and it was only natural to be nervous considering this was his first time setting foot inside a stripclub much less a bar. Now that he was inside, he suddenly felt _alive._ It was as if someone stabbed him with adrenaline; it was _exciting_, he was living in the moment; walking into a place not everyone _dared _to even consider walking into.

The thought roused up Eren to no end. It was that same feeling he had gotten earlier when he had been talking to Armin, when he had started spewing the thrilled….nonsense that set his friend off enough to shove him into a wall.

No. He wasn't going to think about that now. All thoughts of Armin were aside for now. Tonight, there were only three things for Eren to worry about. Reiner. Sina. And Levi Ackerman.

The name made Eren glance down at the bag in his hand and he puffed out a heavy groan.

Reiner raised an eyebrow at him. "What…?"

"The clothes," Eren replied in a huff, looking around as if destiny would just throw the man his way when he needed him. It had when he almost got hit by a car. "Maybe I should have asked the bouncer where to find Levi. This place is so huge and there's a lot of people..."

Reiner pursed his lips in thought for a few seconds before responding. "Well you said he's got a lot of power here, right? So that means he should be well known." A woman was passing by when Reiner called out to her, "excuse me, miss?"

She stopped abruptly and spun on her heels, an almost creepy smile formed on her lips. She looked like a nice person, but the way her brown eyes seemed to sparkle with enthusiasm frightened Eren. Her brown hair was tied up in a high ponytail and her glasses were rectangular with purple rimming. She had on a plunge overbust, black corset with a dramatic heart-shaped neckline that cut low between her breasts. It didn't provide much coverage and Eren tried to look everywhere but her chest in order to avoid coming off as a pervert.

"That's miss Hanji Zoe to youuuu!" She sang with a wink that followed. "What can I do for ya?"

Reiner seemed to be thinking the same thing as it was obvious how hard he was trying to maintain eye contact so that his eyes wouldn't drop where they didn't belong. "Um….we're looking for someone. His name is….uh…"

"Levi Ackerman," Eren finished. "I have his clothes."

At this, Hanji's eyes blinked rapidly as if she were trying to fathom something. "You have his clothes….?"

She was giving off the same feeling Mike had when he obviously wanted to ask Eren something, but decided against it. And it had been after the mention of Levi's clothes, just like now. What was so weird about it?

Eren nodded slowly, cautiously. "Yeah…."

The woman recomposed herself and cleared her throat. "Ah…! Well, I have no idea where that short, tea-obsessed, coffee-swallowing, shit-talking, tongue-clicking, stormy-eyed weirdo is!" She giggled. "Oh, I love myself! I know he's here somewhere though because I saw him earlier and it's kind of his priority to be here, y'know? So, yeah! I'd ask Petra-licious over there!" She spun Eren around by the shoulders and pointed to a woman sitting over by the bar. "If anyone knows about Levi, she'd be one of them, for sure!"

Eren's heart sunk at that statement. She'd know for sure, huh?

He turned to Hanji, thanked her and smiled with a little bow of his head before heading towards the woman. He didn't notice that Reiner was stopped by Hanji who casually pointed out the number of times she caught Reiner glancing downward.

It was a bummer too, because he didn't get to witness how red Reiner's face turned either.

Eren assumed the woman's name was Petra because there was no way in hell Hanji hadn't meant 'Petra-licious' as anything other than a nickname. It was the same name as his professor actually; a pretty name at that.

He took the seat next to her and gently tapped her on the shoulder, her _bare _shoulder. And as soon as she turned her head, Eren's face paled.

"Professor Ral?!" He practically shrieked, nearly falling off his seat in the process.

She managed to grasp his wrist as if she saw it coming, keeping him from tumbling backwards and when he straightened up, she released him and smiled softly. Despite the fact that one of her students had just witnessed her dressed up seductively in such a promiscuous place, she appeared rather calm.

"Hi, Eren…You can just call me Petra. I'm not your teacher outside of Shingashina nor are you my student. So relax, please."

Her short, ginger-colored hair was sprinkled with purple hair dye that was fading; most likely the temporary kind of spray. She had on a pair of bunny ears and wore on a corset similar to Hanji's except it was red and outlined in purple.

She was sporting a kind yet slinky smile. "Like what you see?"

Eren flinched, not realizing how blatant he had been about observing her attire. He couldn't help it though, he was so used to seeing her in formal outfits that his green orbs seemed to wander at the mercy of his curious mind.

He feigned laughter, sounding more nervous than he wanted to. "Hahaha...funny. I actually came to ask you about someone. Hanji told me that you….." He had gestured in her direction, but trailed off, noticing Reiner and Hanji seemingly hitting it off a few feet away at a table. "Is that woman a threat to my friend?" He suddenly asked with narrowed eyes.

Petra blinked before giggling softly as she regarded the two. "Nah, he's fine. Hanji doesn't just sleep with anyone; plus she's as picky as they come. She needs a specific man….or woman...to be her other half, preferably loud, obnoxious and just plain weird. Just like her. So you were saying?" She urged, looking back at Eren with an intense gaze. "Hanji told you that I….?"

"Oh...um. Hanji told me that you would know where to find Levi? Levi Ackerman?"

Her amber eyes squinted and her lips became menacingly thin. Eren almost felt threatened.

His mother had been right; women could be scary when they wanted to be. But the question was; what had he said wrong? Did she have something against Levi? Or perhaps was she one of those best friends who were overprotective of their own friends?

"Why do you want to know…?" Petra inquired with hostility.

Eren slowly held up the bag. "I have his clothes…"

"Oh…?" She mumbled, suddenly dropping the intimidation and huffing childishly. "Okay…" Just like that, the subject was submerged.

It was all an act though, Eren knew that much because the abrupt change in her tone, in her voice, in how vigilant she had just been made absolutely no sense. And the way her eyebrows furrowed in angry frustration, how her amber eyes were no longer bright and smiling. Her features said it all. She was upset and it almost too obvious.

And Eren felt bad. He was used to seeing the bright Professor Ral teach the class about music. He didn't like seeing her look so down and so…..pissed off.

He glanced away to see Reiner and Hanji still talking; and he took a good look around the massive room, but there was still no sign of Levi. And he didn't want to just leave. Not until he saw Levi; that was the main point of coming to this club in the first place.

"Hey so…..what's with the hair dye?" Eren inquired awkwardly, trying to initiate a conversation in hopes that Levi would soon pop up. "And uh...the outfit?"

Petra peered his way carefully, looking him up and down before a light smirk formed on her lips. "I…..work here," she said slowly and Eren's eyes grew wide at the realization of his teacher's second job. "I knew you would read between the lines; you've always been a great student," she praised with her soft, teacher voice. "Tonight the color hue for the workers is purple, red and black; hence the dye and my attire." She then leaned into him and whispered, "Do you want to know why I teach Music Theory? And why I work here…?"

She was so close that her breath basically glided along the skin of his ear and it made him shiver.

"Sure…" he responded, bracing himself for an extremely sultry answer.

"Because I love to dance," she said, eliciting a sigh of relief on Eren's end. "You've probably heard me say this a million times, but music and the relationship it can have with a human being is can see the way it works if you watch everyone on the dancefloor," she motioned to the massive floor towards the front of the room.

She was absolutely right.

The song had changed by now to 'I Like It Loud' by Myah Marie and the crowd was hystric, going wild as if in a trance. Their bodies were corrupted by the beats; like puppets with strings being pulled by the rhythm.

_I like it loud! I like it loud!_

_I like it loud! I like it loud!_

The masses on the dancefloor were moving with the dancers on stage as if brainwashed by them, but the dancers were not the leaders here; they were just as lost in the song as the crowd below them.

_Oh, I'mma keep you up til there's nothing left to do!_

_So baby, turn it up cause the speaker's gotta boom!_

_And yeah, I like it rough til the walls are coming through!_

They snapped their hips from side to side, ran their hands over their nearly bare bodies and Eren found himself staring longingly, wanting to dance with them.

Petra observed Eren with a smile and had been about to say something when a man came up to them, snapping the brunet out of his own imagination.

He was tall and slim with dark, coarse-looking hair that reached to his neck and a thin beard that ran along his jawline. He was most likely middle-aged and was admittedly, somewhat attractive, but Eren wanted to avoid having those kinds of thoughts so he pushed them out. His eyes were small yet piercing and he sported a white shirt with a black vest over it, black pants and the finishing touch of a black fedora hat with a white band around it.

"Oi, Petra."

The voice made Eren flinch. It sounded so familiar, so close to Levi that it was frightening.

"Oi, Kenny," Petra retorted in a bad impression of a deep, manly voice with a playful grin.

The man, Kenny, rolled his dark eyes and his hands went to his hips. "Your fucking impressions just get shittier and shittier by the goddamn day."

"I don't try!"

"Yeah?" Kenny inquired; most likely being rhetorical because he didn't even wait for her to answer. "Well fucking shitty, what's-her-name, purple-rimmed glasses freak doesn't know jack shit about Erd's whereabouts and he needs to get his gay ass on stage soon."

The ginger shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know either. He's a grown man, not my responsibility. He probably snuck over to The Rose to hang out with Gunther."

Kenny heaved out a tired sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Holy fucking shit... It's like I have grown-ass children running around the place. I don't babysit little shit-lins; that is not what this goddamn place is for, damn it!" His eyes briefly flickered to Eren and he relaxed, turning to him. "Well bloody _fucking _hell; you look like a new face. What's your name?"

One minute he was cursing angrily; the next he had a soft, fatherly tone. Seemed legit.

"His name is Eren," Petra answered for him before eyeing Kenny with narrowed amber orbs. "Don't touch my baby without my permission, you perverted old man."

Kenny rolled his eyes. "Calm your fucking tits down, Petra." He then laid his eyes back on Eren and extended his hand out. "The name is Kenny Ackerman; Sina's official owner."

Eren reluctantly reached out to shake his hand and he took note on the fact that Kenny didn't release the grip afterwards. "Ackerman…?"

Petra nodded. "Yeah, he and Levi are related. Meet uncle fucking Ackerman."

"Ah, you know Levi? Interesting…" Kenny murmured as his eyes went up and down Eren's body, giving off the impression that the man was stripping him mentally. "Just from reading your exterior, you seem like quite a brat. And he doesn't take a liking to them very often."

Eren tried to keep his face from scrunching up or his eyes from narrowing. "Well...I'm just giving him his clothes-"

Kenny cut the younger male off with a loud curse. "My apologies. I need to go get fucking idiot Erd before his time on stage starts. Perhaps we could catch up another time should I see you here again." His grasp on Eren's hand loosened, but he pulled the boy's hand up to place a kiss on his knuckles before turning and leaving.

It took all of Eren's willpower not to yelp at the odd act. Nobody usually did that on the first meet. He didn't know how to feel about him yet, but one thing was for sure. Kenny Ackerman was definitely a weird man.

Petra raised an eyebrow, shooting Eren an approving look. "Wow… I'm impressed."

Afraid of the answer, Eren had to force the question out. "W-Why…?"

"Didn't you see him staring at you like you were eye candy? That's a good thing!" Petra chided with brightly-lit eyes. "It means if you ever want to work here, Kenny would most likely not even bat an eye against it. And it's not a bad deal; the _cash_, the _attention_, the _people_, the _dancing_, the _music_! It's all like a grand dream you get to live _every _night."

One word latched onto Eren.

He watched her quietly, almost intensely. "Did you say cash…?"

Petra wiggled in her seat. "Yeah…!" she murmured excitedly.

But then her eyes suddenly caught something past Eren and she stood up from her seat.

"Petra…?"

"I'll be right back," she said hurriedly, bolting away from the bar and soon from Eren's sight.

He was unsure of why she had made a run for it, but it at least gave Eren some time to seriously think about what he had just considered. He had just thought of working here; at a stripclub. But if the cash was amazing which was absolutely believable just by merely looking around; he could do so much more; he could help the foster home, help his mom.

He could bring back her bakery, maybe give it a more eye-catching design. He could buy Hitch a karaoke set like she's always wanted. He could get Rico and Nanaba their cosplay costumes. Maybe buy Marlo a 3DS; or get Mina a sewing machine, or Hannah an artist kit.

He just needed money.

And his part-time job at a coffee shop was doing nothing for him. For him or Armin and their apartment. For his mother or the foster kids.

He would be twenty-one soon and if what Petra said was true; Kenny would probably let him work here, maybe he could be a bartender. Or the worse, one of those waiters. But it didn't seem too bad. Coming here every night and getting to see Levi, too?

The deal didn't seem bad at all.

"Oi, Eren."

Eren turned around and had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling.

Standing in front of him was the man he had been looking for all night. Levi was wearing a burgundy collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a black vest over it, a skinny black tie nicely done and tight dark jeans. He had a white Nixon watch on his wrist and his black shoes were well-kept and spotless.

"Oi, old man," Eren said with a grin, holding the bag out to him. "Here's your clothes. Courtesy of the annoying, brat with shit-colored hair and mucus green eyes."

"Now I remember why I hate your guts, you fucking smartass," the raven-haired man sighed and when Eren feigned an upset pout, he rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue before taking the bag and throwing the strap over his shoulder. "Thank you….again…"

He said it almost reluctantly, but Eren appreciated that he tried and smiled. "No problem." Staring at Levi's face only reminded Eren of what happened earlier between him and Armin, and his smile dropped. He needed to ask Levi something, but he didn't want to do it here. Not with so many people around. "Um...Levi?"

"What?"

"I need to ask you something...that's a bit…." Eren was scratching the back of his neck for the right words. "I don't know, important..?"

Levi eyed him for a few seconds, stormy pools searching him for whatever it was he wanted to know. After a while, he just nodded his head. "Alright. We can talk in my office," he turned and started walking back towards the corridor that led to the entrance.

Eren almost wanted to question the fact that he had an office. But then again, he had met Kenny Ackerman; Levi's apparent uncle who owned Sina. So, of course he had an office.

He glanced over his shoulder real quick before standing up to follow. Reiner and Hanji were still talking; whatever it was must have had Reiner wrapped around her finger. He hoped his friend would be okay here, but it didn't seem like Hanji was a bad person.

And as he trailed behind Levi, he noticed Petra from afar in the crowd of dancers. She made a rushed, casual stroll their way, making sure to avoid Levi's line of sight and she brushed by Eren, slipping a piece of paper into his hand. They exchanged a quick glance before she smiled and left.

And as he walked, he opened up the paper and it read;

_I don't have a 2nd period. Meet me in my class. - Petra_


End file.
